1^. 



/ 



: A 







THE 



CROWN INN. 



1745 



THE CROWN INN, 

NEAR BETHLEHEM, PENNA. 

1745- 




A HISTORY, 



TOUCHING THE EVENTS THAT OCCURRED AT THAT 

NOTABLE HOSTELRY, DURING THE REIGNS OF 

THE SECOND AND THIRD GEORGES. 



REHEARSING THE TRANSMISSION OF "THE SIMPSON TRACT," 
IN LOWER SAUCON TOWNSHIP, BUCKS COUNTV, 

IN UNBROKEN CHAIN OF TITLE, FROM 

WILLIAM PENN, OF WORMINGHURST, IN THE COUNTY OF SUSSEX, ESq., TO 
MARGARET AND WILLIAM LOWTHER; TO MARGARET POOLE, OF 
CONEY HUTCH ; TO JOSEPH STANWIX, OF BARTLETT'S BUILD- 
INGS ; TO JOHN SIMPSON, OF TOWER HILL; AND LAST, 
TO JASPER PAYNE, OF BETHLEHEM, WINE-COOPER, 
FOR THE SOLE USE AND BEHOOF OF 
HIS MORAVIAN BRETHREN, 

BETWEEN 1681 AND 1746: 

BEING A PARTIAL UNFOLDING OF THE PARTICULAR ANNALS OF EARLY MORAVIAN 
SETTLEMENT, AND OTHER SETTLEMENT, IN -THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



T, IN -THi 

By WM. C. REICHEL, 



Author of " The Uethlehem Seminary Souvenir," " The Moravians in New York and 

Connecticut," " Nazareth Hall and its Reunions," " Memorials of the IMoravian 

Church," "The Old Mill," "A Red Rose from the Olden Time," 

"The Old Sun Inn at Bethlehem," " Wyalusing," etc., etc. 



499 COPIES PRINTED 

FOR E. P. WILBUR AND OTHERS. 

1872. 




IS 7 



KING t BAIRD, PRINTERS 

607 SANSOM STREET, 

PHILADELPHIA! 



TO THE MEMORY 

OF THE 

Architect and of the Members of the Building Committee 

OF THE 

CROWN INN, 

WHOSE LABORS PROVOKED THIS HISTORICAL EXCURSION, 

AND TO MY FRIEND, 

JOHN W. JORDAN, 

OF PHILADELPHIA, 

Late Commissary Sergeant of "Starr's Battery," 321! Regiment P. M., 
I DEDICATE ITS PAGES. 



" 1^TC>W this Indenture witncsseth : That for and in consideration 
J[_ ^ of the sum of two hundred pounds, lawful money of 
Pennsylvania, unto the said John Simpson, by the hands of his said 
attorney, William Allen, well and truly paid at. and before the sealing 
and delivery hereof, he, the said John Simpson, hath granted, bargained, 
sold, released, and confirmed, and by his said attorney, William Allen, 
doth hereby grant, bargain, sell, release, and confirm unto Jasper 
Payne, of Bethlehem, in the county of Bucks, in the Province of 
Pennsylvania, wine-cooper, and to his heirs and assigns, all that the 
said piece or tract of land, containing as aforesaid, two hundred and 
seventy-four acres, together, also, with all and singular the buildings, 
improvements, ways, roads, waters, water-courses, rights, liberties, 
privileges, hereditaments, and appurtenances whatsoever thereto 
belonging, or in any wise appertaining, and the reversions and remainders 
thereof" 



JOHN SIMPSON, 

BY HIS ATTORNEY, 

WILLIAM ALLEN, Esq., 



JASPER PAYNE 

For 274 Acres. 
Philadelphia, 3 June, 1746. 



UNTIL some painstaking antiquary shall have fully illumined the 
twilight, by which, it must be confessed, the history of the 
old Crown Inn (despite the acumen of diverse recent interpreters) is, 
even yet, imperfectly read, — the following pages are offered to the 
interested reader, in the hope that they may partially supply a want. 
Meanwhile, let him abide the time until the end, so devoutly wished 
for by him, shall be satisfactorily attained. 

It may be well to observe that what is here written, occasionally 
militates against what the writer and otiiers have written on this 
subject — a confession, however, which cannot shake the intelligent 
reader's confidence in either — he well knowing that historical narrative, 
like all other kinds of writing, is liable to err, and is at best but an 
approximation to the truth. 

For the rest, the following pages are based upon authentic records. 
If they aid in recalling the past, and prove potent in peopling its 
realm with the memories of departed heroes, the object in writing 
them will be amply fulfilled. 

Bethlehem, Penna., September i, 1872. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 




1745 



LIND, indeed, to the perfections of God's 
handiwork In Nature, and inlets to a 
sluggish soul, must be the eyes that fail 
to see, or that grow weary of resting 
upon the beauties of the landscape which 
skirts the border of the bluff, on whose 
ridge, in sharp relief against the northern 
sky, stands the modern borough of Bethlehem. 

From the placid stream which comes to view out of 
the recesses of a fairy island, as from some hiding place, 
the foldings of gentle hills rise upward and higher, until 
their swelling outlines blend with the mountain which 
locks in its embrace this perfect little world. What- 
ever of beauty in form, wheth'er form of headland, 
lowland or upland, — whatever of beauty in grouping, 
be it that of foliage, with sky or cloud, or heaven- 
reflecting water, — whatever of grateful charm In the alter- 
nation of forest with ploughed or seeded field, of green 

(7) 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 



nook with fallow wold, of gray with sombre hues, — follow 
the sweep of the sunny amphitheatre before you, and 
say — are not all these here ? No other portion of the 
valley of the Lehigh, confessedly, has been favored by 
Nature as this; none, elsewhere, perhaps, of the same 
extent, as much ; and yet even here, this goddess, 
strange to say, has planted a garden within a garden, 
which man is now adorning with all that is chaste in 
rural art or magnificent in suburban architecture. 
Would you mete out the bounds of this garden-spot, — 
taking the river for a base, run a line from a point 
in its right bank not a stone's throw below the upper 
bridge due south, run a second parallel to this, from 
its bank where the stream bends gracefully around 
Calypso Island, through the laurels and rockeries of 
Oppelt's and the embowered precincts of Bishopthorpe, 
and complete the rude parallelogram with the southern 
horizon by way of head-line. This is the frame in 
which is set *' the Picture in the Valley." View it from 
what point you choose, (best, perhaps, from the iron 
bridge that spans the Menagassi), — it is ever a picture 
of surpassing loveliness. A painting not made by 
human hand, it defies criticism ; a painting made by a 
master, it requires no tedious study, — so just are its 
proportions, so truthful its perspective, so correct 
its distances and foreshortening, so harmonious the 
blending of its colors ^nd its contrasts of light and 
shade, so real the transparency of its atmosphere, and 



Tlie Crown Inn near Betlileliem. 



so perfectly natural its stereoscopic effects. View it 
when you may, it never fails to please. With the 
change of the season or the hour of the day, its 
aspect, indeed, varies, but only to reveal new shapes 
and tints, with which to challenge the beholder's 
silent admiration. It is all bathed in sunlight, 
long before you see the spokes of the shining chariot 
in the east, and long after the lower world is wrapt 
in the mists that gather nightly over the river. 
Well may you ask, is it a city of gold, half-hidden 
among trees of gold, that looms up on those aerial 
heights, growing hourly more luminous, until under 
the meridian sun, it burns and dazzles in a glory of 
consuming splendor ? But would you view it in its 
loveliest mood, (be it the time of tender buds or of 
green leaves, or when maples flame on every side,) — 
mark the witchery that steals over the scene, as soon 
as the noonday's glare begins to wane and the evening 
hours come on. How gentle the spirit that then 
breathes on hill and tree and turret, blending their 
shapes and softening their hues and mellowing their 
lights ! How silently the shadows creep down the 
grassy slopes, stretching out their toils farther and 
farther across the lowland, until, when the sun has 
sunk behind the hills of Oppelt's, they hold all things 
spell-bound in neutral tints and deepening shade, — 
there being naught to indicate that the landscape is 
not dead, but merely asleep in trance, — save the rosy 



10 Tlie Ci'oivii Inn near Bethlehem. 

blush athwart the mountain top and the glittering 
fanions on the great tower of Packer Hall ! Then lies 
before you, the picture in the valley, in its loveliest 
mood! 

It was within the precincts of this garden-spot, that, 
more than one hundred and twenty-five years ago, 
there lay what was called by the Moravians of that 
time *'the Simpson Tract," on which was reared 
for the refreshing of all who had occasion to way- 
fare through a then almost primitive wilderness, the 
humble hostelry whose name is borne on the title 
page of this tribute to its memory. 

Now, the naked deed-history of this, to the reader, 
important tract of land, is the follov/ing: 

By indentures of lease and release bearing dates of 
22d and 23d of October, 1681, respectively, William 
Penn, Sr., Proprietary and Chief Governor of the 
Province of Pennsylvania, by the name of William 
Penn, of Worminghurst, in the County of Sussex, Esq., 
bargained, sold and confirmed to William Lowther 
and Margaret Lowther, two of the children of Anthony 
Lowther, Esq., by Margaret, his wife,* five thousand 

* Margaret Lowther, was a sister of William Penn (2 Proud, p. 115). 
She married Anthony Lowther, of Masham, in the wapentake of Hang- 
East, North Riding, of the County of York. Their children were 
William and Margaret Lowther. William Lowther married Catharine 
Preston ; their child was Thomas Lowther. Margaret Lowther married 
Benjamin Poole ; their child was Mary Poole. Mary Poole married 
Richard Nichols ; and their child was Margaret Nichols. 



The Crown Ian near Betldehem. 11 

acres of land in the Province of Pennsylvania, to be 
set out in such places or parts of said Province, and 
at such times as were agreed upon between said 
parties, — for a certain specified consideration, and on 
the payment of the chief or quitrent of one shilling 
for every hundred acres, on the first day of March, 
forever, in lieu of all services and demands whatsoever. 

Margaret Lowther, who, on the decease of her 
brother William, had been invested with his moiety 
of the original grant, devised the entire tract to her 
daughter, Margaret Poole. 

Margaret Poole, soon after marrying John Nichols, 
of Coney Hutch, in the County of Middlesex, E^sq., 
jointly with her husband conveyed the aforesaid pro- 
portion and quantity of five thousand acres, by inden- 
ture bearing date of 23d of September, 1731, to Joseph 
Stanwix, of Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn, gentleman. 

Joseph Stanwix released them to John Simpson, of 
Tower Hill, London, merchant, in January of 1732; 
whereupon the latter, desirous of transmuting his 
colonial estates into pounds, shillings and pence 
sterling, caused, by virtue of a Proprietary's warrant, 
bearing date of 31st October, 1733, a parcel of two 
hundred and seventy-four acres and allowance of the 
noble grant, to be located and surveyed for his own 
use, — and subsequently others.* Now the parcel with 

* A second parcel of the Lowther Tract, to wit, 200 acres adjoining the 
Barony of Nazareth, due south of Cliristian's Spring, was surveyed for 



12 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

which this writing is concerned, the one last seated as 
containing two hundred and seventy-four acres, was 
located on the West Branch of Delaware,* in Lower 
Saucon township, in the County of Bucks, the survey 
being made on the 24th of November, 1736, by 
Nicholas Scull, t at that time a deputy for William 
Parsons, Surveyor General. Thereupon it was thrown 
into the market. 

The Moravian Brethren, on establishing themselves 
within the Forks of Delaware (the first house of 

Simpson, by Scull, on the 26th of October, 1736, and deeded by Allen to 
John Okely, of Bethlehem, for the use of the Moravians, on the 19th of 

* The name by which the Lehigh river is always designated in early 
deeds and surveys. 

f Nicholas Scull, who played a prominent part in the early annals of 
Pennsylvania, is first met with at White Marsh, where he was residing, in 
1722, engaged as a surveyor, and occasionally in the public service, acting 
in Indian affairs in the capacity of a runner, or as interpreter for the 
Delawares. With Godfrey, Parsons, and other young men of inquiring 
minds, Scull was associated in Franklin's Junta Club, and there "mani- 
fested a fondness for making verses." In 1744. he was appointed Sheriff' 
of the city and County of Philadelphia, and in June of 1748, succeeded 
William Parsons as Surveyor General. This position he filled till in 
December of 1761. Meanwhile, he had drawn a map of the improved 
part of the Province, which was published by an Act of Parliament in 
January of 1759. Scull was Sheriff of Northampton for three terms (1753 
to 1755), and in those years was a resident of Easton, In 1757 we find 
him in Philadelphia, and in 1764, keeping an inn at Reading. His sons, 
James, Peter, William, Edward and Jasper were all surveyors. William 
published a map of the Province in 1770. Both father and sons were 
associated with the Moravians, by business, for a number of years. 



The Ci'owa Inn near Bethlehem. 13 

Bethlehem was blocked up in the spring of 1741), 
soon perceived that special advantages would accrue 
to them from the possession of the "Simpson Tract," 
opposite their settlement. "It will give us the control 
of the river at this point, and an unobstructed outlet 
into the more thickly peopled parts of the Province. 
Once in other hands," they argued, "and we may be 
perpetually embarrassed." Reasoning thus, they lost 
no time, too, in arranging the preliminaries for an 
early purchase. But these, much to their regret, 
involved a case of ejectment, in as far as Conrad 
Ruetschi, a fellow countryman of Orgetorix and 
William Tell, who had been imported in the ship 
Mercury, of London, William Wilson, master, but 
last from Cowes, in May of 1735,' — was firmly seated 
on the premises in the memorable spring of 1741. 
The ring of the Moravians' axes, and the crash of 
falling trees on the hillside north of the river, in the 
stormy March of that year, sounded like a knell of 
doom in the ears of the Helvetian squatter. He 
admitted that he had been headed off, and that he 
was likely to be outflanked, too ; yet, feeling strong 
in the nine points of the law, he abated none in 
improving the surroundings of his cabin, turning 
his attention also to the growing of flax. The first 
crop of this staple that matured on the Simpson 
Tract, it may interest some reader to know, was 
gathered for Ruetschi, by the hired labor of the 



1^ The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

Moravian women of Bethlehem. This was on the 
27th of July, 174^, falling, therefore, in times of 
Dorian simplicity, but a little in advance of those 
in which our common mother span. So trifling an 
occurrence would not have been adduced in this narra- 
tive, but for the inference it enables us to draw, to wit, 
that the Moravians and their Swiss neighbor were still 
living side by side in apparently perfect harmony. But 
when in Februray of 1743, the former were hopefully 
negotiating with William Allen,* of Philadelphia, 

* William Allen, whose speciilaiive enterprise opened up the Forks of 
Delaware (subsequent to 1752, Northampton County) to settlement, and 
whose name is perpetuated on hundreds of deeds executed by him on the 
sale of their lands to early purchasers, was, we are told by Proud (2 p. 188), 
"the son of William Allen, Sr., an eminent merchant of Philadelphia, a 
considerable promoter of the trade of the Province, and a man of good 
character and estate." The subject of this memoir, it is asserted by 
Charles Thomson, deeded away lands in the Minisinks (near Strouds- 
burgh) as early as 1733, four years prior, therefore, to the confirmation of 
the old Indian purchase, or the extinction of the Indian claim, by the 
historic day and a half day's walk. Being "on the ground floor," (to 
use a lofty figure of speech) accordingly, and shrewd and prudent, for- 
sooth, he was successful in operating and acquired a handsome fortune. 
This gave him, — naturally enough, position, — and state following on its 
heels, Mr. Allen, in 1761 (see i Watson, p. 208), was one of but three 
gentlemen in the capital of the Province who rode in carriages of their 
own, his equipage being a Landau drawn by four blacks, and driven by 
an expert of a whip, specially imported from England. But fortune ex- 
tended his influence also, and being respected for probity and a knowledge 
of the law, he, in due course of time, was appointed Chief Justice of the 
Province (1750), sitting as such on the woolsack down to the time of the 
rupture between the colonics and the mother country (1774), when with 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 15 



merchant, the duly appointed attorney-at-law of John 
Simpson, of Tower Hill, London, for the purchase 
of the two hundred and seventy-four acres and allow- 
ance, and when on the nth day of March ensuing, 
the latter saw the. great flat for the Bethlehem ferry 
Launched and propelled under the very walls of his 
stronghold, aggrieved beyond endurance, he broke 
truce. Turning to the law for redress, he appealed 
to Nathaniel Irish,* the nearest Justice of the Peace, 

other loyalists whose fortunes were linked with those of the old regime, 
he sailed for England. He died in London in 1780. His wife, who was 
a daughter of Andrew Hamilton, an eminent lawyer, bore him three sons, 
Andrew, William, and James. The first was Chief Justice a short time 
in the commencement of the Revolution, and also a member of Congress 
and of the Committee of Safety ; but placing liimself under tlie protection 
of General Howe circa, 1776, he was attainted of high treason, forfeited 
his large estates — and thereupon went to England, deceasing in London, 
in 1825. William, the second son, was for a time a Lieutenant-Colonel in 
the Continental service. He also died a refugee loyalist abroad. James, 
a member of the Committee of Observation and Inspection for Pennsyl- 
vania, remained true to the cause of American Independence. He was 
furthe.more the founder of Allentown, which place crystallized about 
Trout Hall on Jordan Creek (a summer seat of William Allen), subse- 
quent to 1755. His property in and around that settlement, which for a 
half century and more fluctuated between the names of Allen's Town 
and Northampton (but now Allen/ozu», although a bona-fide city), he 
devised to his daughters, to wit: Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Tilghman and 
Mrs. Livingston. James Allen died in Philadelphia, in 1777. The 
townships of Allen and East Allen jointly with the aforementioned city 
(which should simply be called Allen,— nc\\.\\cv more nor less), perpetuate 
the name of tlic enterprising founder of old Northampton County. 

* Mr. Irish, who was commissioned a Justice of the Peace for the 



16 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

who dispensed equity at his house, when not grinding 
grist in his mill, near the outlet of Saucon creek, 
two short miles lower down the West Branch of Dela- 
ware. Stating his case to the law-read miller, Ruetschi 

County of Bucks, by Govenor Thomas, In April of 1741, bought lands near 
the mouth of the Saucon, at diftercnt times; the first purchase of 150 
acres, bearing date of 12th April, 1738, on which day it was released to 
him by Casper Wistar, of the city of Philadelphia, brass button-maker, 
and Catharine, his wife. In 1743, he was possessed of upwards of 600 
acres, all contiguous ; these, together with the improvements including a 
mill (whose ruins are still standing in the rear of Mr. John Knecht's 
house in Shimersvllle), he conveyed in October of 1743 to George Cruik- 
shank, of the Island of Montserrat, in the West Indies, sugar planter, 
who In his lifetime became lawfully seized In his desmesne as of fees 
of and In the amount of 900 acres of land, lying contiguous along Saucon 
Creek. Cruikshank, by his last will and testament — he deceased In March 
of 1746 — devised this tract together with his New South Sea annuities, 
and his real estate In Montserrat to his children, James and Lathrop. 
But these divided the property In 1769, — whereupon, Lathrop, on marry- 
ing John Currie, of Reading, in the County of Berks, Esq., with her 
husband entered Into possession of 450 acres, the homestead and the mill. 
In 1787, Currie deeded back to James Cruikshank, practitioner In physic, 
180 acres, including the mill, the latter having meanwhile disposed of his 
moiety of the original bequest to Jesse Jones, yeoman, and to Felix 
Lynn, of Upper Saucon, practitioner in pliysic. James Cruikshank, of 
the village of Bethlehem, practitioner In physic, by his last will and 
testament dated 24th September, i8of, devised to Mary Currie, Francis 
Currie, and William Currie, children of John and Lathrop Currie, the afore- 
mentioned 1 So- acres and mill, both which, William Currie, of Plymouth 
township, in the County of Luzerne, yeoman, deeded to Jacob Shimer, 
of Bethlehem township, yeoman, in June of 1809, for §10,666.66 lawful 
money of the United States. Shimcr's, now Knecht's mill, was built in 
1 812, and around It by way of nucleus, the brisk little village at the 
mouth t)f the Saucon, gradually grew. 



The Crowiv Inn near Bethlehem. 17 

adduced the nine points by way of fortifying liis argu- 
ment, urged his right of pre-emption, and concluded 
with a fair offer to purchase the lands in dispute, 
promising payment with undoubted security at an 
early day. Now had not Henry Antes,* — he resided 
at the time in that beautiful region of country, which 
stretches back of Pottstown, then called Falckner's 
swamp — a man versed in the law, and a warm friend 
of the Moravians, happened to be at Bethlehem on 
the 23d day of April, 1743 (which day marked the 
crisis in this feverish excitement about a strip of 
woodland in the wilderness), superintending the erec- 

* Mr. Antes (he hnd immigrated prior to 1726, in \Yliich year he mar- 
ried Christiana De Wicscn, of White Marsh) was a highly respected 
citizen in his neighborhood, and a man of much influence with its German 
population, being esteemed alike for his integrity, and for his zeal in the 
cause of vital religion. His attachment to the Moravians dates back to 
the years in which Spangenberg (subsequently the presiding officer in the 
Bethlehem Economy) resided among the Schwenkfelders of Philadelphia 
County. With Count Zinzendorf he was on the most intimate terms, 
co-operating with him heartily in his attempt to unite tlie religiously 
inclined German element of the Province on an evangelical basis. Mr. 
Antes resided at Bethlehem, between June of 1745 and September of 
1750, directing, meanwhile, tlie many improvements that were then being 
made at that place and at Nazareth. In December of 1745, he was 
commissioned a Justice of the Peace for the County of Bucks. 

Mr. Antes died on his plantation in Falckner's Swamp, on the 20th 
July, 1755. John, a son, was a missionary of the Moravian Church, 
and an adventurous traveller in Egypt, between 1769 and 17S1. Governor 
Simon Snyder, married for his second wife, Catharine, a daughter of 
Philip Frederic, oldest son of Henry and Christiana Antes. • 



IS The Ci'oicn Inn near Bethlelf^em. 

tlon of a much needed grist-mill (the same that be- 
came completely historical in the night of the 27th of 
January, 1870), — it is a question whether the future 
of the Simpson Tract would not have been alto- 
gether different from the one of which we are privi- 
leged to write, — and whether it would ever have 
boasted a royal crown. For Mr. Antes, on the 
aforementioned day, adjusted the difficulties between 
the contestants, in as far as his representations of the 
justice of the Moravian claim prevailed with Irish, — 
nay, even tempted the latter to the commission of an 
official act, when, at the close of their professional 
consultation in the dusty mill he insisted on serving 
a writ of ejectment on the squatter. In this extreme 
measure the peace-loving Moravians, however, refused 
to concur. Instead, they tolerated their discomfited 
rival, until such time as he could conveniently re- 
move, and having compounded with him for his 
improvements entered into possession. 

Three years subsequent to this piece of unpleasant- 
ness, William Allen and Margaret, his wife, made 
deed of this now historic piece of ground, to Jasper 
Payne, of Bethlehem, wine-cooper (a native of Twick- 
enham, in the hundred of Isleworth, county of Middle- 
sex O. E., " whose eel-pie house was for two centuries 
a favorite resort for refreshment and recreation to 
water-parties," — but, in 1742 a resident of London, 
dwelling at the corner of Queen street and Watling 



TJie -Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 19 

street, St. Antholines), for the use and behoof of his 
Moravian Brethren, by indenture bearing date of 3d 
June, 1746, in consideration of the sum of 200/. law- 
ful money of Pennsylvania,* to them well and truly 
paid, and under the yearly quitrent hereafter accruing 
to the chief lord of the fee. Its precise bearings and 
metes extracted from the field-works of Nicholas 
Scull, were these: "Beginning at a marked black- 
oak by the side of the West Branch of Delaware, 
opposite to an Island in the same" (vulgarly called 
Calypso Island, which was surveyed for Nathaniel 
Irish, in April of 1742, but transferred by him, in fee, 
to Henry Antes, in March of 1745, for 10/., Penn- 
sylvania currency, — but for the use of the Moravians, 
and thereupon patented by the three brothers Penn), 
" from thence extending by vacant land south twenty 
degrees west one hundred and sixty-two perches to a 
post; thence by the same east three hundred and 
thirteen perches to a post ; thence by the same and 
William Allen's land north one hundred and seventy- 
four perches to a marked black-oak by the side of 



*A sum equivalent to $533.33 United States money, reckoning i/. 
extinct Pennsylvania currency equal to ^2.66 ; at the rate, therefore, of 
$1.94 and the fraction of a hundredth per acre, — since which time, how- 
ever, it may not be amiss to state, Simpson land in the due order of 
tilings, has materially advanced in price. Town lots in the borough of 
South Bethlehem, are being sold at this writing, at the rate of $9,000 
per acre of land. 



20 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 



said river, and thence on the several courses thereof, 
to the place of beginning."* 

So much of the history of the Simpson Tract from 
times immemorial (in which, in all probability fell 
its first tenure by the inevitable Indian), until the 
close of the squatter sovereignty of Conrad Ruetschi. 

Having linked their newly-acquired possessions to 
the five hundred acre tract on which Bethlehem was 
being built, by means of a ferry (as was stated above), 
the Moravians set about bringing portions of them 
under cultivation. Such was the early and humble 
origin of the great Moravian farms on the south side 
of the Lehigh, which, ultimately, after the purchase 
of additional territory, numbered four, and were last 
known as the " Luckenbach Farm," the " Jacobi 



* Although these terminal oaks have disappeared (whether they paid 
the debt of nature, or whether they fell victims to the cupidity of man, 
there are no means of ascertaining at this late day), and, although their 
lowlier brothers, the posts, have long since been removed, — yet by the 
aid of diverse drafts extant illustrating the successive purchases of lands 
by the Moravians in the vicinity of Bethlehem, it is not difficult to 
exactly locate the Simpson tract, obliterated as its ancient landmarks 
have been by the vicissitudes incident on time and tide. Beginning 
at the black-oak opposite the Island, its west line passes in the rear 
of the buildings of the Water Cure, and having cut Bishopthorpe in 
two, terminates at the edge of Tinsley Jeter's brick yard ; from this 
point, the south line runs due east to a corner in the grounds of 
the Lehigh University, a few rods southeast of Packer Hall ; thence 
the east line tends due north one hundred and seventy-four perches, 
striking the river's bank, a short distance below the New Street Bridge. 



The Crown Iim near Bcthlclicm. Ql 

Farm," the Fuehrer Farm," and the HofFert Farm." 
But of these, more hereafter. 

Now to resume the thread of our narrative, the 
beginning of the Bethlehem ferry was on this wise: In 
midwinter, January 'Ic^th. of 1743, a site for the much- 
needed convenience was selected, its southern terminus 
being a point on the river's bank immediately above 
the present railroad bridge, marked to this day by a 
group of sycamores, whose ancestors before tnem had 
shaded the first waterman who undertook to propel the 
ponderous flat across the swift-flowing Lehigh. His 
name, indeed, is lost, but it is recorded that the craft 
he navigated was drawn to the northern terminus of 
the ferry on the nth day of March of the aforemen- 
tioned year by eight horses, and successfully launched. 
But as the vessel was not christened, there was no 
breaking of bottles nor waste of wine. Furthermore, 
it is recorded, that in February of 1745, one Adam 
Schaus,* who was keeping a public house in a small 



*Mr. Schaus, one of" those historical personages frequently met with, 
who break through the clouds and darkness of the past only at in- 
tervals, or if you choose, play on the surface of its gloom fitfully as 
do ignes fatui over marsh or stagnant pool, — immigrated from Albshcim 
in the Lower Palatinate, with Barbarba, his wife, and Piiilip and 
Frederic, their sons, about 1735. ^^^ ^^^ ^ wheelwright by occupa- 
tion, and was settled in Falkner's Swamp, when in December of 1741, 
he made the acquaintance of Count Zinzendorf, by whom he was 
introduced to the favorable notice of the Moravians. Being a man 
of good parts, we need not be surprised to learn that he was ap- 



Tlie Crowiv Inn near Bethlehem. 



way on the Ysselstein plantation hard by, consented 
to conduct the ferry for his Moravian friends. This 
he did for ahiiost a twelvemonth, and then accepted 
an appointment to act as miller at the Bethlehem 
mill. 

Meanwhile the question of erecting a house of enter- 
tainment for the accommodation of travellers, at some 
point in their territory, had been agitated by the people 
of Bethlehem, it having been found that the steady 
march of settlement northwards into the Forks was 
converting their quiet villiage into a thoroughfare, and 
making it a halting-place, at times for idle and im- 
pertinent intruders. The arrangements in their large 

pointed to act as secretary for an ecclesiastical convention (one of a 
series of seven), which sat In the house of George Huebner, a 
Schwenkfelder, in the Swamp, in January following. About this time 
the Count loaned Mr. Schaus 50/., on terms, that would nowadays 
be called easy, as the debt was not liquidated as late as July of 
1745, In tlie spring of 1743, the subject of these memoirs tarried 
some time at Bethlehem, as he and his son Philip had been engaged 
to assist Mr. Antes in erecting and putting into running order a 
grist-mill. Soon after its completion, he removed his family into 
Saucon township, in the immediate vicinity of that place. Here he 
opened a house of entertainment, in which in December of 1744, a 
third son was born to him, named Gottlieb. Subsequently he removed 
to Bethlehem, as is stated above, and was manifestly a member of 
its Economy, as in August of 1745, its steward supplied him with 
"a frock and breeches made of linen without lining," valued at 5 
shillings. Subsequent to Mr. Schaus' retirement from the mill, his 
history grows obscure ; yet there is reason for believing that after the 
erection of the new countv-town in the Forks, he sought to better 



TJie Ci'oiuih Inn near Bethlehem. 23 

houses (and others, there were none) forbade the 
lodging of strangers among them, save at much in- 
convenience; — and an Inn within the precincts of the 
town, it was argued, would merely invite invidious 
comment on the part of the public, which was deter- 
mined to remain ignorant of their object and aim. 
In fact, it was already at that time reported that the 
Moravians were a monastic order, that their houses 
were convents, and that at Bethlehem " the glimmering 
tapers shed forth light on cowled heads, and the nuns' 
sweet hymn was heard sung low in the dim mysterious 
aisle," No wonder, then, it was deemed expedient to 
locate the proposed Inn on the Simpson Tract. Ac- 

his fortunes there, in the whirl of business, which, it was hoped by men 
of sanguine temperament, would attend its growth and development 
as a seat of Justice, and a centre of inland commerce. So much is 
certain, however, that in 1760, both Adam and Frederic Schaus were 
residents of Easton ; the former a landlord, the latter a mason, and 
superintending too the work on the Moravian house, then in course of 
erection in that place. It would furthermore appear that the son 
succeeded the father; for it is said that in Frederic Schaus' Tavern, 
the Honorable the Court occasionally sat in conclave prior to the 
completion of the Court-house in the spring of 1766. Further than 
these, there are no reliable notices of the Schaus family as far as 
this history is concerned ; yet, it may be stated, that its modern 
branches write Shotise upon their hereditary escutcheon. Finally, 
Adam Schaus was never landlord of the Crown Inn, the statement 
to that effect made by writers of its history, being an erroneous de- 
duction based upon allusions to his keeping a house of entertainment 
over against Bethlehem ; which point we hope this narrative will defi- 
nitely settle. 



The Ci'oivn Inn near Bethlehem. 



cordingly, in the early spring of 1745, an eligible site 
was selected at a point a few rods east of the ter- 
minus of the ferry, on high ground near the river's 
bank. Work was thereupon commenced ; but as 
the time and attention of the industrious little com- 
munity were neccessarily occupied with the labors of 
the farm and the shops, also, it was late in the sum- 
mer before the house was habitable. There, then, it 
stood in September of 1745, in a small clearing in the 
woods, — as to its exterior, a rather imposing-looking 
structure, forty by twenty-eight feet more or less, 
compactly knit together from white-oak logs, with 
two stories and a high gable-roof, — as to its interior, 
however, having four rooms in each story, all floored 
with one and a half-inch white-oak plank ; the stud- 
ding of the partition-walls being posts of the same 
material, grooved so as to receive cross pieces, with 
a snug filling of cut straw and clay; the casing of 
the doors and windows, moreover, worked to the 
very beads and fluting from solid timbers ; wooden 
latches and bolts, with not a nail in the carpentering 
but what had been wrought from well-qualified horse- 
shoes by the nailsmith at Bethlehem. It should not 
surprise us, such being the case, that the sturdy 
house was found sound to the core in the year of its 
demolition, which was the one hundred and thir- 
teenth after its erection. 

It may in the next place, be well to acquaint the 







THE CROWN INN, 1757. 

South Front-From "A view of Bethlehem, one of the Brethren's principal settlements in Pennsylvania " 

drawn by Nicholas Garrison, and published November 24th, 1 757. 



The Crowa Inn near Bethlehem. 27 

reader with the lines of travel from which it was 
expected the young Inn would draw its annual 
revenue, — partially, at least. Now the point it occu- 
pied with respect to these, was reasonably strategic, as 
will become evident from a glance at any map of the 
then settled portions of the Province, which shows the 
following to have been the system of roads adopted 
in the Forks of Delaware. There was, in the first 
place, the great King's Road from the capital. This 
had been stretching northward by easy stages ever 
since the days of William Penn, when, in 1738, 
another link was added to its important chain, it being 
in that year extended " from Thomas Morris' road 
in Perkasie,"* to Nathaniel Irish's stone quarry (a 
point in the old Hellertown roadf at Iron Hill). But 
in March of 1745, at the very time when the building 
of the Inn was in its inception, the inhabitants of Naza- 



*The Manor of Perkasie or Perkasea, was a tract of 10,000 acres 
of land, lying within the limits of Hilltown and Rockhill townships, 
Bucks County, granted by William Penn to Samuel Carpenter, 
Edward Penlngton and Isaac Norris, by letters patent bearing date of 
25th October, 1701. In 1735, the three grantees conveyed the tract 
to John Penn the first, when it became known by the name of 
"John Penn's Manor of Perkasea, in the County of Bucks." In July 
of 1759, Thomas Penn donated one-fourth of the estate to the 
University of Pennsylvania. 

f William Bradford, in a pamphlet entitled "An Account of dis- 
tances from the City of Philadelphia of all the places of note in the 
improved parts of the Province," published in 1755, gives the follow- 



28 



Tlie Ci'own Inn near Bethlehem. 



reth and Bethlehem, with others, humbly petitioned 
the worshipful Court of Justices holden at Newtown in 
the County of Bucks, praying in these words, to wit.: 
" that they may have a road fit for wagons to pass 
from Saucon mill to Bethlehem and thence to Naza- 
reth, on account of a corn-mill that is at Bethlehem, 
without which road the people of Nazareth, and other 
the inhabitants of the county will be put to great 
inconvenience, and the same mill to them be rendered 
useless." Hereupon the desired road was laid out 



ing points of interest in the old King's Road, and their precise 
distances from the Court-house. 



From the Court-house to Betlilehem, viz. 

To Poole's Bridge, 

Norris', .... 

Farmhill Meeting, 

Rising Sun, 

Stenton, .... 

Germantown Meeting-house, 

Mount Airy, . 

Scull's, .... 

Ottinger's, .... 

Francis', .... 

White Marsh Church, 

Benjamin Davis', 

Baptist Meeting, 

Housekeeper's, . 

Swamp Meeting, 

Stoffel Wagner's, 

Bethlehem, 



liles. 


Qrs. 


Perches. 


— 


2 


65 


2 


I 


37 


2 


3 


35 


3 


2 


40 


5 


1 


— 


6 


I 


30 


8 


2 


5^ 


ID 


— 


22 


12 


2 


35 


12 


3 


38 


13 


I 


33 


i6 


— 


5+ 


23 


I 


57 


25 


I 


57 


37 


2 


47 


47 


2 


— 


52 


3 


57 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 29 

as follows, "beginning at Irish's stone quarry at a 
white-oak, thence northwest forty degrees north thirty- 
five perches; thence west northwest one hundred 
perches; thence west sixty-nine perches; thence west 
northwest one hundred and fifty perches to Ysscl- 
stein's plantation ; thence north over the river Lecha* 
ninety-three perches ; thence west northwest one hun- 
dred and fifty-eight perches to the Bethlehem lane ; 
thence west one hundred and twenty perches to the 
mill ; and from the Bethlehem line north northeast 
quite to Nazareth twenty-eight hundred and forty 
perches." Beyond that hamlet there was close con- 
nection by bridle-paths with Depui's settlement in 
the Minisinks, which, in turn, was tapped by the 
historic "Mine Road" that led you through the 
valley of the Mamakating to Kingston in Esopus. 
A few days' labor it will be conceded, would sufHce 
to cut a way from the Inn through the woods to the 
Indian ford. 



* By way of an old Indian ford, which Heckerwelder states to have 
been in the great trail leading northward from the lower country of 
the Delawares, even from the mouth of their national river, — said 
trail on crossing the Lecha-wiech-ink forking off in different directions 
to the scattered towns of the Lennape, in inland Pennsylvania,— as far 
west as the Alleghenies. This ancient ford crossed the Lehigh on 
Ysselstein's plantation, bearing according to an actual survey, north 
II degrees west to the head of Ysselstein's Island (the island now held 
by the Bethlehem Iron Company), thence 15 degrees east to the left 
bank, measuring 58 perches from sliore to shore. 



30 The Crown Iinv near Bethlehem. 

There was, in the second place a high road to 
Martin's Ferry over Delaware in the exact fork of 
that river, which road had been petitioned for in the 
same year 1745, by one David Martin, of Trentown, 
who six years prior had obtained " a grant and patent 
with the privilege of keeping a ferry from the Penn- 
sylvania shore to the upper end of an island called 
Tinicum, to the place in the county of Morris in 
West Jersey, called Marble Mountain." Thus the 
Bethlehem Inn was also on the line of travel from 
New York. In the third place a bridle path (con- 
verted into a highway* in 1760) struck southwesterly 
from the house over the Lehigh hills towards the 
German settlements in Macungy, — another due west 
to Solomon Jennings' plantation, and diverse others 
north and northwest to the seats of the Ulster-Scots 
on Menagassi and the springs of Calisuck. Finally 
there was a second ford of the river connecting vvith 
" the road through Bethlehem to Philadelphia," bear- 
ing from said road first south by east, next due south, 
and next south southwest across the river, measuring 
thirty-four perches from shore to shore by actual 



*This road, called the "road to Salisbury" on olden drafts, and 
subsequent to 1761, "the Emniaus Road," as late as 1826, forked 
from the Philadelphia Road near the bridge, thence passing up the 
hill through the grounds of E. P. Wilbur and John Smylle, Jr., and 
onward south by west as far as Foelkner's butchery, at whicli point it 
struck the present road. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 31 

survey. What more eligible site than this for a 
house of entertainment ? And yet the one of which 
we are privileged to write, turned its face modestly 
from the garish glare of dusty highways towards the 
beautiful mountain, borrowing quiet from its peaceful 
calm, bloom from the roses that suffused its bosom 
at dawn and eventide, and nut-brown health from the 
flood of sunlight in which it bathed on its southern 
lookout, day after day during its lifetime as an Inn, 
which numbered forty-nine long years. Meanwhile its 
back, we must confess, was turned indecorously upon 
Bethlehem. 

Fifteen landlords, to whom it is now proposed to 
introduce the reader in turn, presided over the fortunes 
of the house thus auspicioulsy established, in the in- 
terval between September of 1745 and October of 
1794, — said house being at first very appropriately 
and without ought of affectation called by the Mo- 
ravians of Bethlehem, " The Tavern over y^ water," — 
but by others " The Tavern near Bethlehem," or 
" The Bethlehem Tavern." 

Now the names of these olden worthies, recited in 
the order of their succession, are the following, to 
wit: Samuel Powell, Frederic Hartmann, Jobst Vol- 
lert, Hartman Verdriess, John Leighton, John God- 
frey Grabs, John Nicholas Schaet^er, Ephraim 
Culver, Andreas Home, John Lischer, Ephraim 
Culver (a second time), Augustus H. Francke, 



The Ci'owii Inn near Bethlehem. 



Valentine Fuehrer, John G. StoU and George 
Schindler.* 

On the 30th September 1745, Samuel Powell a 
native of Whitchurch {Album Monasteriuni)^ a mar- 
ket-town in the Whitchurch division of the hundred 
of North Bradford, County of Salop, brazier, — (he 
immigrated in June of 1742 and since then had re- 
sided in Philadelphia) and Martha, his wife, occu- 
pied the Inn, which, during their incumbency (it 
expired on the 31st of May 1746), after having been 
warmed and duly furnished, sustained the character 
of a very sober and orderly house. In fact, having 
been granted neither permit nor license, it was a 
house of entertainment in the restricted acceptation 
of the term only, — proving, nevertheless, a useful ac- 
quisition for the Moravian settlement, in as far as 
upwards of two-hundred visitors were booked at 
Bethlehem, for the eight months of the Powell ad- 
ministration.f 

*The editor of the Memorials of the Moravian Church states 
erroneously (see page 262, Vol. i ), that one Anthony Gilbert was 
a landlord of the old Crown Inn. He was led to a committal of 
this error by obscure allusions to said Gilbert as keeping a house of 
entertainment, called The Crown, in 1745 — which house, however, he has 
since satisfactorily located in Germantown. It might repay some anti- 
quary to institute researches so as to develop the history of the hostelry 
in that ancient town, the honored namesake of the one of which these 
pages treat. 

t Samuel Powell died at Philadelphia, loth September, 1762, and was 
buried in Potter's Field, now Washington Square. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 33 

The Powells were succeeded by Frederic Hart- 
manii and Margaret his wife, both of whom had 
immigrated in the interval between 1725 and 1740, 
a period of time unpiecedentedly rich i.n the influx 
of Palatines into the Province, — they being not 
unlikely included in the number of those of whom 
Secretary Logan writes to the Proprietaries so 
excitedly — " they come in crowds, go to the best 
vacant tracts and seize upon them as places of 
common spoil. But when they are sought out and 
challenged for the right of occupancy, these Germans 
allege it was published in Europe that we desired 
and solicited colonists and had a superabundance of 
land, and therefore they had come with no means 
to pay." Be this as it may, Mr. Hartmann was 
residing in the vicinity of the Simpson Tract when 
he accepted the appointment to the Inn. In antici- 
pation of his accession as landlord, the house, mean- 
while, had been well furnished with all that is in- 
dispensable to an Inn, besides the appurtenances 
of a dairy. This appears from the following record ; 
viz. : 

" 19 May 1746. Tavern over ye water Dr., for 
Sundries, to wit : Two cows 7/., one churn 3^. — 
one quart wine-measure, one pint do, one half 
pint do, one gill do, one half-gill do, all of pew- 
ter, and three gill and two dram-glasses i/. — two 



34 The Crown Inn near BetJdehenv. 



hogsheads of cider 3/. — four casks do iL c^s. — 
one cask of metheglin 17J. 6d. — a small cupboard 
with an iron lock 8j-. — one walnut table iGs. — a tin 
funnel, an iron strainer, a beef-fork and a ladle 4^. 
6d. — two iron candlesticks is. 6d. — six pewter plates 
los. — twelve pewter spoons c^s. 6d. and two soup 
dishes 12s. — " Subsequently, in this administra- 
tion, the chambers were furnished with green rugs 
and blankets, and net-work window curtains. Two 
handsome brass candlesticks were provided for the 
sitting-room, and the kitchen's outfit completed by 
the addition of six black-handled knives and forks, 
one copper coffee-pot, one gridiron for broils, one 
pewter tea-pot, and three brown cups and three 
saucers of china. Thus Mr. Hartmann was enabled 
to offer right royal cheer and goodly creature-com- 
forts to tired travellers, at the house standing on 
Simpson land, which was worth scarce fifteen shil- 
lings per acre in the market ; his rates were reason- 
able, too — to wit : fourpence for a breakfast of tea 
or coffee ; sixpence for a dinner ; (but eightpence, 
for a dinner, with a pint of beer;) fourpence, for a 
supper, cold ; sixpence for ditto, hot ; twopence for 
a night's lodging ; and twelvepence for a night's 
hay and oats, for a horse. 

Meanwhile, however, steps had been taken to 
have the Inn established upon a legal basis. For 
this purpose the Court of Quarter Sessions of the 



The Crown Inn near Bcthleliem. 



Peace, holden at Newtown* in June of 1746, was 
duly petitioned for a license, and a bond having 
been given to Lawrence Growdon, Esq., his Worship 
on the bench, — that solemn body forthwith allowed 
and licensed Frederic Hartmann to sell beer and 
cider by small measure in the township of Saucon, 
in the County of Bucks, until the 24Lh of June 
next ensuing, — he promising to observe the laws 
and ordinances of the Province which were or 
should be made relating to retailers of beer and 
cider by small measure. By this process our Inn 
was transformed into a house of entertainment, in 
a more popular acception of the term than before. 
The net income of the Tavern for the seven 
months between the 19th May and the 31st Decem- 
ber 1746, amounted to 26/. ^s. i<^., a result which 
indicates that its management was efficient as well as 
acceptable. But on the 12th of January 1747, the 
landlady (she was a native of the ancient city of 
Worms in the Rhineland) died — and not three 
months after her interment in the new grave-yardf 

* The ancient village of Newtown, situated on a small branch of the 
Nesharainy, ten miles northwest from Bristol, was the first seat of Justice 
of the County of Bucks, whither its inhabitants repaired for legal 
business even from regions as remote as the Minisinks, until the erection 
of Northampton County and the establishment of a Court at Easton in 
June of 1752. 

f Almost forgotten, as all traces of its existence have long since been 
obliterated, is the burial place which the early Moravians provided for 



36 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

on the Simpson Tract, Mr. Hartmann retired from 
the Inn. We are inclined to believe that he died 
subsequent to 1756 at Nazareth.* 



the settlers residing immediately south of the Lehigh, with whom they 
were connected by the ties of religion. A draft of " Bethlehem Lands," 
lying on tliat bank of the river, drawn in 1757, locates the graveyard on 
rising ground, some thirty rods due south from the "great spring," — 
therefore near the intersection of Ottawa and Second Street — and shows 
it to have been a small enclosure in the very heart of tlie primitive 
woods, which at that time were unbroken as far east as the line of the 
road then leading to. Emmaus. There are nineteen official records of 
interments made in it between tlie 12th of January 1747, and tlie 9th of 
October, 1767. Well authenticated tradition, however, states, that while 
the Continental Hospital occupied Bethlehem, its sick were occasionally 
billeted in the farm-houses and in the Inn on the Simpson Tract, and 
that a number of Revolutionary soldiers were interred in the forsaken 
grave-yard, as well as in trenches dug in the fields. It is said, further- 
more, that the spot was plowed over in the early part of the century, 
— and even old inhabitants who were once familiar with its site are no 
longer able to fix its precise locality, so completely have ancient land- 
marks been removed or disappeared. (See Appendix for further notice 
of the grave-yard on the Simpson Tract.) 

■-'' This history would be incomplete, were no mention made of one 
Andrew Ostrom and Jane his wife (they immigrateil from London in 
the autumn of 1743), who took apartments at the Inn in October 
of 1746, awaiting the completion of a house then in the course of 
erection for them on a tract of thirty acres, situated on the mountain 
over against the head of the upper island, which tract Ostrom had taken 
up on warrant, the three Penns confirming the same to him by patent 
in November of 1760. Jane Ostrom died on "the Ridge" in Decem- 
ber of 1758, and was buried in the grave-yard on the Simpson Tract. 
In 1764 Ostrom conveyed his land to the Moravians. In 1853 it was 
sold to Chas. W. Ranch of Bethlehem. The inexhaustible quarry of 
Potsdam sandstone which underlies Ostrom's Ridge, furnished jhe 



Tlie Crown Inn near BcUileUan. 37 

It was a fortunate circumstance that at this junc- 
ture there was a person on the spot who was well 
fitted, and willing to assume the responsibilities 
of a landlord, and thus to fill the vacancy created 
by Mr. Hartmann's resignation. This person was 
one Jobst Vollcrt, of whose history we know the 
following: In the early summer of 1746, Jobst, 
and Mary Elizabeth, nee Miller (she was a sister 
of Daniel Miller of Philadelphia, potter), his wife, 
removed with their family to Bethlehem from their 
late residence on the Schuylkill in Coventry town- 
ship in the County of Chester. There they had 
become acquainted with Moravian itinerants, and 
attached to the Moravian Society. But as there 
was no dwelling to let in the infant settlement, 
several apartments in our Inn were assigned to 
Jobst, at a rent of fifty shillings per annum, he 
stipulating at the same time "to teach James to 
read and write in consideration of his wood, which 
wood said James* is to split." Mr. Vollert entered 

material of the old Bethlehem buckwheat-mill erected in 176^, of the 
Bethlehem Iron Company's buildings, and of those of the Lehigh Uni- 
versity. 

*It is highly probable that "James" who is here woven into the web 
of this history (he was errand-boy and hostler at the Inn), is the same 
who inevitably brings up the rear as often as an enumeration is made of 
the Moravians who immigrated into the Province from Georgia in 
April of 1740. In 1747 James was transferred to Nazaretli, where we 
lose sight of him. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 



the Inn on these terms on the 17th of June, 1746, 
and thereupon commenced his career as an educator. 
Now, having been the first of that ancient and 
honorable order who resided on the south bank of 
Lecha, which in our day (such has been the onward 
march of civilization) abounds in men and women 
of letters, — and having moreover left a noble record 
and an inspiriting example of disinterestedness in his 
calling, it would not only not be undignified but 
highly proper, for one or another, or for all of 
the institutions of learning on the Simpson Tract, 
to confer a degree upon the memory of old Jobst 
Vollert, and to inscribe his name on their rolls 
of honor. 

Right pleasantly, then, we doubt not, occupied 
with his pupil, with enunciation, stress, pot-hooks 
and hangers, did the long months of the winter of 
1746 and 1747 pass — spring opened, the trees gave 
signs of life, and when the weir in the Lehigh had 
been repaired, and the first shad of the season 
were being taken, Jobst Vollert succeeded to the 
Inn, — he being the third landlord in the succession. 
We much regret our inability to adduce a single oc- 
currence of interest as having transpired during this 
brief incumbency, either at the Inn or upon its 
premises ; but the opening of a boarding-school on 
the 25th day of May, 1747, in the " Behringer 
House" — (it stood not a stone's throw east from 



The Croivn Inn near Bethlehem. 3D 

the foot of the stairway by which you descend from 
the New Street bridge), is an event whose signifi- 
cance claims for it more than a passing notice. The 
great doctors of Geology tell us, that each period 
in that immensity of time in which they revel, pro- 
duced some form of life prophetic of some nobler 
kindred form of life destined to appear in a suc- 
ceeding age — a law, whose application here will 
invest the genesis of the school in the " Behringer 
House" with extraordinary import, — demonstrating 
it to have been prophetic of those higher scholastic 
creations which shine resplendent in our day, — the 
imperial University, the academic shades of Mel- 
rose and Penrose, and sweet Bishopthorpe in 
fairyland. In another respect, also, the school which 
has thus been introduced to the reader's notice, was 
geological in character — it having had epochs, each 
of which was sharply defined by the introduction 
of a different order of beings. From the day of 
its organization to the loth day of January, 1749, 
it was occupied by lads, the major part of whom 
had, prior to the first mentioned date, been inmates 
of a similar institution, conducted under the aus- 
pices of the Moravian Society, at some obscure 
point in the Long Swamp. These boys have come 
down to us with no good record, it must be con- 
fessed, it being said of them that they were un- 
ruly spirits and needed disciplining. - We can find 



40 The Ci'oivn Inn near Bethlehem.. 

no clew, however, to the standing with their con- 
temporaries of the girls or young lasses who took 
possession of the premises in May of 1749, — but 
on their evacuating them in December of 1753, the 
" Behringer House" was converted into a battery, 
probably because the neighborhood abounded in rab- 
bits, the fur of which animals was fabricated into 
the styles of felt-hats worn by the gentlemen of 
that day. On a draft of lands lying on the south 
bank of Lecha, drawn in 1757, the old school-house 
no longer appears. 

To return to Jobst VoUert. On the 2d of No- 
vember, 1747, he retired from the Inn, and removed 
with his family to a plantation of eighty-one acres, 
lying south and southwest of the Simpson Tract, 
which he had purchased of one Tobias Weber, a 
Lutheran, last from Germantown. The house stood 
on the road to Macungy, and had been built by 
Weber in February of 1744.* In September of 
1754, Vollert added one hundred and fourteen acres 
and one half acre of mountain land to his domain, 
these having been exposed for sale at public outcry 
by Nicholas Scull, then Sheriff" of the County of 
Northampton, as the property of one Anthony 

*Its site was at the crossing of the run which springs in tlie Salisbury 
iiills, and which, after passing in the rear of the Church of the Nativity, 
struggles through the improvements of South Bethlehem to find its old 
outlet Into the Lehigh, east of the Union Depot. 



Tlie Croivih Inn near Bethlehem. 4I 



Albrecht (he had been Imported in October of 
1732, in the pink John and William of Sunder- 
land, Constable Tymperton, master, from Rotterdam, 
but last from Dover as by clearance thence), from 
Mannheim, baker. But the " Albrecht Farm " 
stretched from the south line of the "Weber Tract" 
upwards to the very crest of the mountain, and was 
well-paved with syenite, garnished profusely with vac- 
cinia, and rich in ruffed and pinnated grouse. In 
August of 1755, these two plantations passed into 
the hands of the Moravians, and in the following 
May, Jobst Vollert removed to Easton, where we 
find him, in the autumn of 1760, assisting John 
Bosch, carpenter, Frederick Schaus, mason, and 
Abraham Berlin, blacksmith, in erecting a large 
dwelling for the Moravians, on a lot "bounded east 
by Pomfret street, south by lot No. 120 — west by 
a twenty-foot alley, and north by Ferry street." 
While in the act of digging a well on these prem- 
ises, — the curtain falls upon Jobst and we fail to 
recognise him elsewhere on the stage of history. 

On the third of November, 1747, Hartmann Ver- 
driess (Vandriess), last from Carter's Run in War- 
wick ' township, Lancaster County, miller, and Ann 
Catharine, nee Bender (she had immigrated in her 
bellehood with her parents from Heilbrunn, in the 
Palatinate, and had settled in Conestoga) his wife, oc- 
cupied the Bethlehem Tavern, as host and hostess, 



Jl.2 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

they being the fourth couple called to administer its 
concerns. But their career was brief, — and even 
in its tenor, closing on the 29th day of March, 
1748. Elsewhere, however, Mr. Verdriess made his 
mark. He was twice miller at the Friedensthal 
mill, on Lehietan, touching the Barony of Nazareth 
on the east, — and was landlord of "The Rose" hard 
by, between August of 1756 and April of 1759, ^^ 
a time when living in the bush was fraught with 
perils, as white men's scalps were at a premium in 
the Indian market. His experiences during that 
period of his life are fully rehearsed in " A Red 
Rose from the Olden Time ;"* — hence, passing them 
over thus lightly, we proceed to state, that in 1766 
Mr. and Mrs. Verdriess removed their family be- 
yond Mason and Dixon's line (about the time when 
these distinguished mathematicians and astronomers 
had reached the summit of the Little Allegheny in 
their historic survey), and seated themselves in Fred- 
eric County, Maryland, adjacent to a Moravian set- 
tlement (since 1785 called Graceham), then growing 
upon a small tract of land, which Frederic, the last 
Lord Baltimore had patented to those people in 
November of 1751. Here Mr. Verdriess died in 
1774. His widow, however, returned to Bethlehem, 

"" "Or, A Ramble through the Annals of the Rose Inn, on the Barony 
of Nazareth in the days of the Province." Small 410 pp, 50. King 
and Baird, Printers, Philadelphia. 



The Crown Inn near Bcbhlehenv. ^3 

where she died in April of 1801. Peter Verdriess, 
a grandson, was an eminent classical teacher in Phila- 
delphia between 1815 and 1825. 

John Leighton, a native of the seaport of Dundee, 
in the town of Forfarshire, Scotland, but last from 
Lamb's Inn (Broad Oak), a Moravian settlement in 
the County of Essex, O. E., baker, and Sarah, m, n. 
Clifford, born in the ancient city of Canterbury {T>ii- 
rovernuni)^ both of whom had immigrated in the 
autumn of 1743 with one hundred and fifteen others, 
(they sailed in the Moravian ship " The Little 
Strength") took charge of the hostelry on the '29th of 
March, 1748. Their administration of its affairs was, 
upon the whole, a prosperous one, — the house netting 
Gi^l. IS. <^\d. in 1749 — 71/. iGs. 'jji. in 1750 — and 88/. 
iij". 3^. for the year ending 26th July, 1752, — al- 
though beer and cider were the only beverages dis- 
pensed.* Governor Hamilton honored the Inn a few 



•"• Fortunately there is extant and in good keeping, a view of Bethle- 
Iicm from the declivity of the mountain, taken by some unknown 
limner in 1751, in which the Inn, as far as it occupies a position in the 
foreground, looks us full in the face. We need no further testimony 
than what is furnished by this ancient drawing, that the entrance to the 
hostelry was from the south, and that there was no signboard as yet to 
arrest the attention of the passing traveller. For the rest, the house is of 
imposing appearance, comparatively speaking, and its surroundings such 
as are usually presented by a clearing only recently hewn out of a 
primitive wilderness. To give life to this picture, tlie artist introduces 
two figures ; — one, a female with pitcher in hand passing out of the 



44- -27^6 Crown Iini near Bethleltenv. 

moments by his presence on the 13th of July 1752, 
while on his way to Easton to confer with Mr. 
Parsons* on matters touching the welfare and dignity 
of the newly erected seat of Justice. There was at 
this time a great want of highways through the 
Counties of Bucks and Northampton to said seat 
of Justice, and as John Chapman and John Watson, 
surveyors, had not yet laid out " a commodious 
road from the mouth of the West Branch of Dela- 
ware opposite the town of Easton (the landing place 
of a well-accustomed ferry over Delaware River), 
over the aforementioned West Branch into the great 
road leading from Saucon to the City of Philadel- 
phia," — (lately asked for by divers the inhabitants 
of the County of Northampton) — the Governor was 



door— and the other, an Indian, seated on a log, near the well at which 
the damsel purposes to fill her vessel. 

* William Parsons, who rocked Easton in her cradle and watched 
over her infant footsteps with paternal solicitude, was probably a native 
of England. We find him residing in Philadelphia prior to 1722 (in 
that year he married), a shoemaker by trade, and a member of Frank- 
lin's Junta Club in which he passed for " a man having a profound 
knowledge of mathematics." About 1743 he was appointed their Sur- 
veyor General by the Penns. Ill health compelling him to resign this 
laborious position in June of 1748, he thereupon removed to Lancaster, 
whence he was summoned by the Proprietaries in the autumn of 1752 to 
fill the offices in the seat of Justice of the newly erected County of 
Northampton. He died at Easton in December of 1757. Several of his 
daughters united with the Moravians. His widow, who removed to 
Betlilehem in 1769, died there in March of 1773. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. J^5 

necessitated to take a circuitous route to reach his 
destination. This brought him to our Inn. But, 
eighteen days after his Honor and his Honor's suite 
had refreshed themselves with beer and cider at 
Leighton's, — the worthy couple retired from public 
life. Mr. Leighton died at Bethlehem in August of 
1756. His widow survived him till in April of 1785. 
Although there was as yet no farm on the tract 
with whose history this writing is concerned, portions 
of it had, meanwhile, been brought under cultiva- 
tion, and in 1747 a barn was erected near the Inn, 
in order to obviate the inconvenience of ferrying the 
hay and fodder over the river to the Economy's 
farm-yard in Bethlehem, — and also to permit of 
housing such kine as were pastured on its south 
bank. There being plentiful subsistence for sheep in 
the grassy swales in the lowland, the Economy's en- 
tire flock (it numbered in the aforementioned year 
two hundred and seventy head, including one hun- 
dred and ten ewes and lambs from the Barony) was 
summered on the Simpson Tract annually. One 
John Godfrey Grabs, a native of wool-growing Si- 
lesia (he and his wife Ann Mary had immigrated 
with a large colony in November of 1743, most 
of whose members had been brought over for the 
special purpose of reclaiming the Barony from the 
wilderness, — these, therefore, being the pioneers who 
felled its primitive forests, enriched its water-courses 



^6 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

with made meadows, and sowed its sunny uplands 
with wheat and rye, until at five distinct points its 
acres smiled with the gifts of Ceres, and eventually, 
Nazareth, Sicily-like, became the granary of a Re- 
public) — was duly appointed shepherd. This ap- 
pointment was dictated by prudence, as the wolves 
had not yet deserted their ancestral homes in the 
neighborhood. It was for Grabs to guard the flock 
against harm from these hungry denizens of the 
bush, — whether seated under the shade of some oak 
or chestnut, or whether in his two-wheeled lodge on 
inclement days, while beguiling his tedious watch, 
not with foolish reed or oaten pipe, but with knit- 
ting stout hosen from the wool of his own grow- 
ing. Nevertheless, it happened occasionally, that a 
wolf or two, bolder than their fellows, would dog 
the tracks of some inexperienced lamb or yearling, 
and dispensing with the hypocritical sophistry of 
their kinsman in -^sop, despatch it summarily, while 
in the very act of drinking at the run half way up 
the mountain. This, then, was the idyllic epoch in 
the past of the Simpson Tract, a veritable return to 
the days of poetry and fable, — twin-sisters in the 
realm of letters. It is true there were no Phyllises 
at hand, (save the lasses at school in the " Behringer 
House") — but Mr. Grabs, who has shown himself 
a utilitarian and no dreamer, we venture to say, was 
proof against their harmless little ways. Be this as 



The Crown Inn near BetJdehevi. jpf 

it may, a well authenticated tradition, asserts that 
the unruly lads occasionally wheeled the shepherd's 
lodge into the river, when he was called from his 
post to follow his fleecy charge in their wayward 
movements through the valley. While a knowledge 
of these vagaries may serve to detract from the per- 
fection of the idyl we were called upon to deline- 
ate, it distracts not a whit from our acquaintance 
with the instincts of human nature.* 

It was from this pastoral occupation that Mr. 
Grabs was promoted to the Inn on the 26th day 
of July 1752, it being precisely two months after 
sheep-shearing. He and his wife were the sixth 
couple incumbent, and stood at its head for almost 
four years. Before proceeding to review the great 
events in this administration, it becomes us to ac- 
quaint the reader with the following occurrences of 
minor importance. And first our Inn was invested 
with new powers, when in the autumn of 1753, 
there were displayed in its tap-room the following 
letters patent : 

"Whereas John Godfrey Grabs hath been recom- 
mended unto me as a sober and fit person to keep a 
house of entertainment, and being requested to grant 
him a license for the same, I do hereby license and 



* It may prove interesting to some reader to learn that Casper Bcckcl, 
John Salterbach, Christopher Demuth and John Brodlicad (a son of 
Daniel Brodhead of the Minisinks) were the last inmates of this school. 



Ilie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 



allow the said John Godfrey Grabs to keep a 
public house in the township of Saucon over against 
Bethlehem in the County of Northampton, for the 
selling of wine, rum, punch and other spirituous 
liquors, until the lytli day of August next; Pro- 
vided, he shall not, at any time in the said term 
suffer any drunkenness, unlawful gaming, or any 
other disorders, or sell any drink to the Indians to 
debauch or hurt them ; but in all things observe 
and practice all laws and ordinances of this Govern- 
ment to his said employment relating. 

" Given under my hand and seal-at-arms, the 
17th day of August, in the 27th year of our Sov- 
ereign Lord and King George the Second, and in 
the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred 

and fifty three. 

Signed James Hamilton." 

[L. S.] 

Hereupon, for some reason nowhere given, the 
income of the house markedly increased, its profits 
for the interval between the aforecited instrument 
and the close of the year being 34/., and for the 
year ending 31st December 1754, 247/. los. 6d. 

The cost of the annual licenses issued, as was 
customary in those times, by the Honorable the 
Governor, on recommendation of the Court of Gen- 
eral Quarter Sessions of the Peace, was il. 5^. gd.^ 
for the years 1755 and 1756. 



The Crown Inn near Betlilehem. J^O 

A new era was now about to dawn upon the 
Province and our Inn, in the course of which the 
latter was reluctantly drawn out of its cherished 
seclusion by being subjected to distasteful publicity, 
was closely linked in its fortunes to the former, 
and was brought face to face with the great actors 
of the bloody drama, the scene of which was des- 
tined to be laid on the frontiers of Pennsylvania. 
French ambition and French aggression provoked 
the first war, in which the followers of William 
Penn engaged with the aborigines. Whatever other 
considerations may have moved the Indians to en- 
tertain unfriendly feelings towards the descendants 
of a man whose memory they revered, whether loss 
of confidence in their integrity, or a sense of injury, 
or a wild hope of regaining their ancestral seats, — 
it is a question whether they would have followed 
up these feelings by acts of open hostility, had they 
not been incited by the insidious representations of 
the French of Canada. An alliance with the Indian 
tribes of the Province, the latter well knew would 
enable them to carry on their military operations 
in the Ohio country successfully, and to realize their 
schemes of territorial aggrandizement. In this way, 
then, were the Delaware nation and lesser tribes, 
residing on the Susquehanna and eastward, seduced 
from their allegiance to the British crown, and led 
to inflict much suffering upon the white settle- 



48 lliG Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

allow the said John Godfrey Grabs to keep a 
public house in the township of Saucon over against 
Bethlehem in the County of Northampton, for the 
selling of wine, rum, punch and other spirituous 
liquors, until the lytli day of August next; Pro- 
vided, he shall not, at any time in the said term 
suffer any drunkenness, unlawful gaming, or any 
other disorders, or sell any drink to the Indians to 
debauch or hurt them ; but in all things observe 
and practice all laws and ordinances of this Govern- 
ment to his said employment relating. 

"Given under my hand and seal-at-arms, the 
17th day of August, in the 27th year of our Sov- 
ereign Lord and King George the Second, and in 
the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred 

and fifty three. 

Signed James Hamilton," 

[L. S.] 

Hereupon, for some reason nowhere given, the 
income of the house markedly increased, its profits 
for the interval between the aforecited instrument 
and the close of the year being 34/,, and for the 
year ending 31st December 1754, 247/. los. 6d. 

The cost of the annual licenses issued, as was 
customary in those times, by the Honorable the 
Governor, on recommendation of the Court of Gen- 
eral Quarter Sessions of the Peace, was il, 5^. gd.^ 
for the years 1755 and 1756. 



The Crown Iini near Bethlehem. ,^9 

A new era was now about to dawn upon the 
Province and our Inn, in the course of which the 
latter was reluctantly drawn out of its cherished 
seclusion by being subjected to distasteful publicity, 
was closely linked in its fortunes to the former, 
and was brought face to face with the great actors 
of the bloody drama, the scene of which was des- 
tined to be laid on the frontiers of Pennsylvania. 
French ambition and French aggression provoked 
the first war, in which the followers of William 
Penn engaged with the aborigines. Whatever other 
considerations may have moved the Indians to en- 
tertain unfriendly feelings towards the descendants 
of a man whose memory they revered, whether loss 
of confidence in their integrity, or a sense of injury, 
or a wild hope of regaining their ancestral seats, — 
it is a question whether they would have followed 
up these feelings by acts of open hostility, had they 
not been incited by the insidious representations of 
the French of Canada. An alliance with the Indian 
tribes of the Province, the latter well knew would 
enable them to carry on their military operations 
in the Ohio country successfully, and to realize their 
schemes of territorial aggrandizement. In this way, 
then, were the Delaware nation and lesser tribes, 
residing on the Susquehanna and eastward, seduced 
from their allegiance to the British crown, and led 
to inflict much suffering upon the white settle- 



5'B The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

resting against the eastern slope of the Blue Moun- 
tain were left to their fate, — invariably the torch of 
the Indian warrior. It was in this precipitate hegira 
now, that the Moravian farms and villages were 
sought out by the fugitives, and were thus converted 
into cities of refuge, — and some of them, moreover, 
into rude strongholds, girt with palisades, after the 
fashion of those times of primitive warfare. This 
condition of things reached its climax, it is true, in 
the early winter of 1756; nevertheless, even pend- 
ing negotiations for peace with the Indians (there 
were three conferences held with them at Easton 
alone, in the interval between July of 1756 and 
August of 1757), there occurred repetitions of the 
horrors which' had marked the inception of hostili- 
ties. At a treaty made between Governor Denny 
and the Delaware King Tadeuskundt, at Easton, in 
August of 1757, a peace was finally confirmed. 

Meanwhile, the Bethlehem Tavern had been the 
scene of lesser acts in the exciting drama of the 
day. Its precincts were crowded with fugitives in 
December of 1755. Landlord Grabs scarcely knew 
how to provide for these destitute people.* Stand- 
ing, furthermore in the highway of travel between 



* Elizabeth, the wife of Solomon Davis, a refugee from Allen town- 
ship, died at tlie Inn on the 25th of January, 1756, and was buried in 
the grave-yard near by. 



The Crown Inn near Betlileliem. 



Fort Allen* (Weissport) and Easton — between an 
important military outpost, and the point which had 
been selected by the Indians as the place of con- 
ference, it will not surprise us to learn that it was 
occasionally a rendezvous for the soldiery in the 
Province service, and frequently the halting-place of 
the disaffected Delawares and their dusky allies. 
The following events occurred at the Inn during 
the last months of Grabs' incumbency. 

*This was the second stronghold in a cordon of stockades erected 
along the line of the Blue Mountain, between the Delaware and the Sus- 
quehanna. It was built under Franklin's direction, on the left bank of 
the Lehigh, at a point where Col. Jacob Weiss commenced Weissport 
in 1785 ; was completed on the 25th of January, 1756, and named in 
honor of Chief Justice William Allen. The well in the stockade may 
be seen on the premises of the Fort Allen House. It should be care- 
fully preserved, not only because it is a memorial of the old Indian 
War, but also because it testifies to what Poor Richard knew about 
digging wells. Fort Allen was garrisoned for five years. On its evacua- 
tion in January of 1761, the site on which it stood reverted to the 
Moravians, — being within the limits of a tract of 120 acres, part of a 
great tract of 5,000 acres released by William Penn to Adrian Vrcesen, 
of Rotterdam, in March of 1682, deeded by Adrian Vroesen to Benjo- 
han Furley, of the aforementioned city — surveyed for the heirs of Benjo- 
han Furley, in December of 1735"; conveyed in March of 1745, in its 
entirety, by Thomas Lawrence, of Philadelphia, attorney-at-lavv, for 
Dorothea, widow of Benjohan Furley, and Elizabeth and Martha Furley, 
coheirs of Benjohan Furley, to Edward Shippen, of Philadelphia, mer- 
chant; conveyed by Edward Shippen in September of 1745 to Richard 
Peters, of Philadelphia; Peters thereupon deeding the aforementioned 120 
acres to Charles Brockden, of Philadelphia, for the use and behoof of 
the Moravians. 



5J{. The Ci'oivn Inn near Bethlehem. 

On the 23d of November, 1755, the house was 
for the first time occupied by the military, and in 
the evening of that day, Col. John Anderson of 
Greenwich, West Jersey, arrived with a detachment 
of sixty men, to aid a sister Province in distress. 
These passed the night at the Inn, and next day, 
taking the Gnadenhuj:ten road ( the same that had 
been laid out by order of the Court in 1748, — "a 
good wagon road from the King's Road near Beth- 
lehem to the Mahoning creek"), set out for the 
mountain, where Indians painted for war were said 
to be lurking. Despite the presence of Anderson's 
men in the neighborhood, however, the savages, as 
is known, struck a blow that same evening at the 
Mahoning, which cost the Moravians eleven lives, 
and almost proved fatal to their prosperous mission. 

Intelligence of this calamity moved Government 
to lose no more time in putting the exposed fron- 
tiers of Northampton in a posture of defence, and 
Franklin, hereupon, began to move companies of 
Bucks County militia to the scene of the recent 
disaster. Capt. Wilson, with sixty men, was the first 
to march. The company spent the night of the 26th 
and 27th of November at the Bethlehem Tavern, 
and then followed in the track of Anderson. 

Franklin arrived at Bethlehem with Commissioners 
Fox and Hamilton on the i8th of December. With 
these came Capt. Trump's company of fifty men 



TJie Ci'own Inn near Bethlehem. 



(their arms, ammunition and blankets, and a hogs- 
head of rum for their use, writes Parsons, had 
been forwarded to Easton in advance), so that on 
the aforementioned day, one hundred and fifty souls, 
states a trusty chronicler, were billeted at our little 
Inn. This military triumviate now labored with 
alacrity, dividing the time until the expiration of 
the year between Easton and Bethlehem. They 
summoned Capts. Aston and Wayne from Bucks, — 
organized a new company at the former place in 
command of Capt. McLaughlin, and advised with 
Capts. Martin, Craig, and Hays of the Irish settle- 
ments in the Forks. " I had no difficulty," says 
Franklin in his autobiography, " in raising men, hav- 
ing soon five hundred and sixty under my com- 
mand." From the 7th to the 15th of January, 
1756, his headquarters were at Bethlehem. Having 
mustered into the service Capt. Volck's company, 
which arrived at the Inn from AUemaengel (Lynn 
township, Lehigh County) on the nth of the afore- 
mentioned month, and commissioned John Nicholas 
Wetterhold in the Province pay, and John Van 
Etten of Upper Smithfield, Captains, — despite his 
modest confession that " he did not consider him- 
self well qualified for the military business," — the 
Colonel set out for Gnadenhutten to erect a stock- 
ade at that important point. 

It was the 15th of January, 1756, when he broke 



TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 



camp at Bethlehem and moved his little army in 
the direction of the wilderness. He was surrounded 
by the pomp and circumstance of war — but we 
do not question for a moment that the sage's 
heart was in the chime of electrical bells, which was 
wont to ring musically in his quiet study, on 
High street, under the influence of that invisible 
agency, which he, first of men, drew down from the 
clouds. 

Two days after his departure, Capt. Jacob Arndt, 
with fifty men, who had been ordered up from 
Rockland in Bucks, " to strengthen this part of 
the Province," so writes Franklin, " to convoy pro- 
visions to the company at work over the moun- 
tain, and to quiet the inhabitants who seem terrified 
out of their senses," halted at the Inn, and on 
the 1 8th of the last mentioned month, set out for 
their destination.* 

On the 4th of February, Franklin returned to 
Bethlehem with an escort of thirty men. He had 
built his first fort. Kliest, the blacksmith, having 
shoed the Colonel's horse, for which the Province be- 
came indebted to the blacksmith in the sum of one 
and ninepence, and Lange, the saddler, having re- 

* Jacob Arndt was an energetic and popular officer in the Indian 
wars, a leading patriot in the country of his adoption during the strug- 
gle for American Independence, and a member of the Supreme Execu- 
tive Council of Pennsylvania. He died at Easton In i8oj. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 57 

paired his saddle to the amount of three and six, 
the tired warrior, — his martial cloak still damp from 
the frosty rime of the mountain, if not wet with 
"the dew of battle," — rode down to the ferry, was 
ferried across Lecha, and having watered his horse 
once more at the Inn, followed along the river's 
bank to the head of Ysselstein's Island, and there 
struck the great highway to the capital. This was 
on the fourth day of February, in the thirtieth year 
of his subjects' Sovereign Lord, King George the 
second, and in the year of our Lord, one thousand 
seven hundred and fifty-six. 

It was Mr. Grabs' good fortune before retiring 
from the Inn, to witness, as we have just seen, the 
mustering of troops in defence of old Northamp- 
ton, when she was, for the first time, invaded by 
Indians, — and, as landlord, to have added 17/. 12J-. 
3(^., to the revenue of his house during its military 
occupation. His last official act on record was the 
purchase of an hour-glass. Now, as a *' Neisser 
clock," bearing the legend Ab hoc momenta pendet 
ieternitas was ticking in the narrow hall of the 
hostelry, ever since the days of Hartman Verdriess, 
we fail even to conjecture why so primitive a chro- 
nometer was added to the inventory of its effects. 
On the 9th of April of the last mentioned year, 
Mr. Grabs severed his connection with the Bethle- 
hem Tavern. 



58 The Ci'own Inn near Bethlehem. 

It remains to be said of him, that in the ensu- 
ing summer he removed with his family to Betha- 
bara, on the great Moravian tract, in Rowan County, 
North Carolina — that in July of 1759, ^^ assisted 
in making a settlement at *' Walnut Bottom," sub- 
sequently called Bethany, and that at Bethany he 
died in the spring of 1793. 

Here it becomes incumbent upon us to retrace 
our footsteps in this excursion, in order to bring up 
the history of the important appendage to the hos- 
telry, to whose fortunes those of the latter were 
closelv linked. The Ferry was left, on a previous 
page, in the hands of Adam Schaus, whose return 
for the year ending 31st December, 1745, showed 
an income of only il. lis. id. (the rates in those 
days for a footman, were ^^-i ^^^ ^^^ ^ horse and 
rider 6d.) — a sum whose insignificance would surprise 
us, were we not advised, that in the absence of a 
grant and patent, it was thought prudent to make 
payment for ferriage altogether optional with trav- 
ellers. Nevertheless, the advantages accruing to the 
Economy from a ferry at this point, were, it will 
be admitted, so decided as to almost outweigh even 
the consideration of gain. 

On Schaus' appointment to the mill, one John 
David Behringer, shoemaker (he and Gertrude his 
wife, had immigrated in the autumn of 1743), who 
was domiciled in a log-house that stood just with- 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 69 



out the eastern line of the Simpson Tract* (it was 
long known as " the Behringer House," and ap- 
pears to have partaken somewhat of the character 
of a penal institution), and Matthew Hoffman, born 
in Lischenf In Siegerland, In the Palatinate, but last 
from Oley in the County of Berks, saw-miller, con- 
sented to share the management and the responsi- 
biliry of transportation over Lecha, until such time 
as an efficient ferryman should be found. Much to 
their chagrin, naturally enough, then, did a sudden 
rise in the wayward river (it was In the night of 
the 1 6th and 17th of February of 1747) tear the 
flat from her moorings, whence she was hurried 

'^' Dec. 6t/i, 1745. David Behringer came to the house over against tlie 
saw-mill, November i6th, 1746, He is to be rent free one year, and pay 
3/. per annum as long as he lives there, and to enjoy the customary 
privileges, excepting the fish-dam, and the rent of the farm." Bethlehem 
Stexvanfs Book. — Mr. Behringer had occasional customers from points 
as remote as the Brodhead Settlement, or Dansbury on Analomink, in 
transmontane Bucks. "Dec. 3d, 1745, Daniel Brodhead, Dr. to J. D. 
Behringer, for mending shoes, 19/." ll>iJ. We have failed to ascer- 
tain, when this historic house was built. 

f If the curious reader would fix the locality of this and other towns 
and hamlets in the Palatinate named in the course of this narrative, he 
may consult that well-known and popular topographical manual, entitled 
" Historisch-geographischer Hand-Atlas zur Geschichte der Staaten 
Europas, vom Anfang des Mittclalters bis auf die neuestc zcit, von Dr. 
Karl V. Spruncr, Koeniglich Baycrischem Major und wirklichem Mit- 
glied der Koeniglich Bayerischen Academic der Wissenschaftcn zu 
Mllnchen. Gotha, bei Justus Perthes, 1S54. 



60 Tlie Cvowiv Inn near Betlilehem. 

down the rapid stream and irretrievably lost. There 
was no alternative but to construct another. Now 
the second flat* that did service at the Bethlehem 
Ferry was launched on the 28th day of May, next 
following the above chronicled disaster, whereupon, 
Peter Petersen, last from Staten Island, mariner, was 
appointed her commander. During his admiralship, 
sometime in 1749, the first grant and patent for 
ferrying over the West Branch of Delaware, was 
procured from the Proprietaries' Secretary, at an an- 
nual rent of 5^., by the Moravians at Bethlehem. 
This was done, we read, in order to meet the in- 
creasing uncertainty of remuneration resulting from 
a tacit appeal to the generosity of travellers, and 
also to secure themselves against a possibility of 
competition from some rival enterprise in the adja- 
cent neutral waters of Lecha. It was now, too, 
that wharves were constructed at both termini for 

*The following "memorandum for building a ferry-flat," without 
date and without signature, it is true, may possibly have been noted 
down for use at this time. "Length, 31^- feet. Breadth at the head, 
7 feet 6 inches. Extreme breadth 9 feet. Abaft the head, 7 feet 8 
inches. At the stern by a regular sweep from the extreme breadth, 7 
feet 2 inches. Depth at the highest part of the side 24 inches. The 
shear 2 inches, to flare 3 inches. The sides to be sawed 5 inches thick 
at the bottom edge, and 3.] inches at the top edge. The head and 
stern posts 18 inches wide, and 8 inches thick on the front edge, and 
the bottom planks to rabbit on 5 inches— the bottom jihink the whole 
length, and the cross plank the breadth of the flat; the whole 2 inches 
thick." 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 61 

the more convenient ingress and egress of wagons, 
and the equipments of the ferry were completely- 
renovated. 

The spectrum presented to the view' at this stage 
of our historical analysis, suddenly becomes a dis- 
continuous one and is so crowded with absorption 
lines as to leave us in serious doubt as to the order 
in the succession of the different Charons, figuring 
in the scene. Nevertheless, a single luminous band, 
declares unmistakeably that Daniel Kunckler, a native 
of St. Gall, Canton St. Gall, Switzerland (he immi- 
grated with Ann Mary, his wife, in the autumn of 
1743 and settled at Nazareth), was ferryman in the 
year 1753. 

When, in the spring of 1756, during the incum- 
bency of the sixth landlord of the Inn, a second 
grant and patent (known in Moravian history as 
" the Great Ferry Patent") reconfirmed to the Mo- 
ravian Society the sole privilege of ferrying across 
Lecha for the distance of one mile above and one 
mile below their settlement, and for a term of seven 
years, also, — a new impetus was given to the enter- 
prise. A flat, forty-two feet in length was forth- 
with substituted for the one then in use, — and a 
"speaking-trumpet" (six shillings lawful money of 
Pennsylvania were paid to Abraham Hasselberg, the 
pewterer at Bethlehem, for the shell) added to the 
outfit. Now the following is a faithful copy of the 



62 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

instrument which conferred large privileges upon the 
holders of the ferry, and which, moreover, "dead- 
headed" the Honorable the Governor and his ser- 
vants (its cost, including clerk's fees, was i/. and 
I4J-.), the original being endorsed. 

Grant and Patent for the Bethlehem Ferry. 

Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, Proprietaries, 
to David Nitschmann, of Bethlehem, carpenter, for 
seven years from March 2d, 1756. 

Philadelphia, \oth March, 1756. 

'* ^V^htrt'iVi it hath been represented to us, by reason 
of the late very considerable increase of settlements on 
both sides of the West Branch of the River Delaware 
and parts adjacent, and the great resort of people thither, 
and the many travelers whose business and affairs call 
them into those parts of the Province, and have 
occasion to pass over that branch of the said river, it is 
become necessary that some regular ferries at proper 
distances and places should be erected and established 
for the more ready and safe transporting all persons, 
cattle, carriages and goods over the said branch, — ^nA 
it appearing to us upon the representation of David 
Nitschmann* of the County of Northampton in our 

■:^- David Nitschmann, tlie elder, a native of Moravia, and sprung from 
ancestors who were members of the ancient Unitas Fratrum, was the 
first Chief Proprietor of tlie estates of his Society in Pennsylvania ; he 



The Crown Lin near BethleheDi. 63 

said Province, that the plantation belonging to the said 
David Nitschmann and company, and now in the occu- 
pation of the said David Nitschmann, situate in Saucon 
township in the said County of Northampton upon the 
highroad leading from the city of Philadelphia to the 
Minisinks, and from thence to the northwest parts of 
the Province of New York, by means of the convenient 
situation thereof on the sides of the said branch, is a 
suitable place for erecting and keeping a ferry over the 
same to Bethlehem in the Forks of Delaware, ^nd the 
same David Nitschmann having requested our license 
for erecting and keeping a ferry there, and that we 
would grant and confirm the same to him, ^low fmaw 
jJCf that in consideration of the charge and expenses 
which the said David Nitschmann must be put to 
in making wharves and landing-places and providing 
necessary flats and boats, and the constant attendance 
necessary thereunto, ^nd nc being always ready and 
willing to promote the public utility and improvement 
of our said Province, and to give due encouragement to 
all who shall undertake or contribute to the same, ^iiic 
given, granted and confirmed, and by these Presents for 
us and our heirs ^a give, grant and confirm unto the 

having been qualified to assume them, ia virtue of letters of denization 
granted him by the Provincial Court, in September of 1750. Prior to 
that date, the deeds for lands purchased by the Moravians were executed 
to individuals among them who were born subjects of the Crown of 
Great Britain. Nitschmann died at Bethlehem in April of 1758, and is 
popularly known as the founder of that place. 



G^ The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

said David Nitschmann, his executors, administrators 
and assigns, the sole liberty and privilege of erecting, 
keeping and occupying a ferry over the said West 
Branch of the River Delaware to and from the place 
aforesaid for the transporting and carrying over the 
same all persons, wagons, carts and other carriages, 
horses, cattle, goods, wares, merchandises and things 
whatsoever, hereby strictly forbidding all other persons 
on either side of the said branch from taking or carrying 
over the same within the distance of one mile above and 
below the said ferry hereby settled and established, for 
hire, reward or pay, in any flat, boat or canoe, any 
persons, wagons, carts or other carriages, horses or 
cattle, ^\nl we do further give and grant unto the said 
David Nitschmann, his executors, administrators and 
assigns during the term hereby demised, the liberty and 
privilege to demand and receive from all persons, and 
for all wagons, carts and other carriages, horses and 
other cattle, goods, wares, merchandises, and things 
whatsoever passing or being carried over the said ferry 
all such reasonable toll, fees, or reward as shall be set- 
tled for the same (us our heirs and successors and our 
Lieutenant Governor and attendants and servants only 
excepted), ^a hiwe imd io hold the said ferry, liberties, 
privileges, profits and advantages hereby granted, with 
the appurtenances, unto the said David Nitschmann, 
his executors, administrators and assigns, — from the 
second day of March instant for and during and unto 



TJiC Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 65 

the full end and term of seven years thence next ensuing 
fully to be complete and ended, jjichliitij mid I'itnintj 
therefor yearly to us our heirs and successors at the 
town of Easton in the said County of Northampton on 
every the first day of March in every year for and 
during the said term hereby granted five English silver 
shillings or value thereof in coin current according as 
the exchange shall be between our said Province and the 
city of London, to such person or persons as shall from 
time to time be appointed to receive the same, ^haiidctl 
always that if the same David Nitschmann, his execu- 
tors, administrators or assigns shall not at all times 
during the said term hereby granted, find, provide and 
maintain necessary and sufficient, flats and boats for the 
use of the said ferry, and give due, constant and ready 
attendance thereunto, that then and from thenceforth 
this present grant shall cease, determine and be void, 
anything herein before mentioned and contained to the 
contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding." 

Whoever has made the great wave of Palatine im- 
migration which rolled across the Atlantic in the 
first half of the eighteenth century, a special study, 
will recall the fortunes of those three thousand and 
more Germans, whom Queen Anne's most excellent 
Majesty, " out of her unlimited compassion and 
constant goodness," caused to be transported to the 
new world in the Lyon of Leith, the Herbert 



66 The Crown Inn near Betldehem. 

frigate, the Berkley Castle and divers other ships 
of burden, — how, on landing at New York in June 
of 17 lo, the Mayor of that city, having just cause 
to believe that there were many contagious distem- 
pers among them, consigned them to quarantine on 
Nutten (now Governor's Island) — how, in the ensu- 
ing autumn, they were settled on both shores of 
Hudson's river; on the east shore in Dutchess 
County along RoelofF Jansen's kill in the villages 
of Hunterstown, Queensbury and Annesbury ; but 
on the west shore in Albany county along Sawyer's 
kill, in Elisabethtown and Georgetown, — how, they 
were expected to engage in the production of rosin, 
pitch, tar and turpentine for the use of the British 
navy (the overplus, however, to be turned to a 
beneficial trade with Spain and Portugal), they hav- 
ing been promised sustenance until such time as 
they could reap the benefit of their labor, — how, 
in 17 13, finding it impossible to make tar where 
there were no pines, they began to remove to Sco- 
harie, for which her Grace, the Oueen, had con- 
tracted with the Indians in their behalf prior to 
the immigration, — how they were hospitably received 
there by the Mohawk sachems, — how Governor 
Hunter thereupon covertly sold Scoharie to land- 
jobbers in Albany — and how after years of contest 
with these gentlemen's agents and of struggling with 
poverty, the brave Palatines, gathering together their 



The Croiun Inn near Bethlehem. 67 

wives and children, their floclcs and their herds, 
boldly cut a way through the wilderness to the head 
waters of the Susquehanna, built them canoes, and 
while the old men paddled the women and chil- 
dren down the courses of that marvellously beauti- 
ful river to the mouth of the fretful Swatara, the 
sturdier yeomen drove the oxen, the horses, the 
sheep and the swine overland through a trackless 
forest, until (it was in the summer of 1733) they 
reached their destination in the pastoral valley of 
the Tulpehocken, where they set up their house- 
hold gods, and founded a German state in the very 
heart of the Indian country, and beyond the juris- 
diction of the British lion, much to the dissatis- 
faction, be it said, of that magnanimous king. 

John Frederic Schaeffer, the seventh landlord of 
our Inn, was a son of one of these adventurous 
Palatines, to wit; the oldest son of Michael Schaeffer, 
and Elisabeth his wife, and was born in Scoharie, in 
March of 1722. He was therefore a boy at the time 
of .his people's exodus. 

From Tulpehocken (where the Moravians had a 
firm foothold until in 1747, when by reason of "a 
wrong direction having been given by rivals to the 
tenor of a deed" executed to them by the Proprie- 
taries for the confirmation of a parcel of land in 
their manor of Plumpton, they lost it) young 
Schaeffer removed to Bethlehem, where, in Decem- 



68 The Cvowih Iini near Beililelicm. 

ber of 1746, he married Jannetje, relict of Philip 
Rudolph Haymer of Saucon township, but oldest 
daughter of Isaac Martens Ysselstein, last from Mar- 
bletown in Esopus, and Rachel, nee Bogart, his wife. 
He was settled at Gradenthal on the Barony, at the 
time of his appointment to the Inn, over whose for- 
tunes he presided from the 9th of April, to the 
i8th of October, 1756. 

This interval though brief, proved an eventful period 
in its history. The last of the refugees who had found 
an asylum under its hospitable roof after the irruption 
of the savages into cis-montane Northampton on New 
Year's day, had returned to their homes ; the echoes of 
martial sounds had died away — the old habitues of the 
house again frequented their accustomed haunts — and 
there began to brood a spirit of listless repose over the 
precincts of the hostelry as in the palmy days of Jobst 
Vollert and Hartmann Verdries. Meanwhile Govern- 
ment had taken a step which conjured up the storm that 
demonstrated this calm to have been an ominous lull, 
and which brought a swarm of hungry locusts from the 
wilderness to sorely plague John Nicholas Schaeffer, 
and after his retirement from public life, Ephraim 
Culver, the eighth landlord of the Bethlehem Inn. In 
the face of a formal declaration of war. Governor Morris 
was led in June of 1756 to proffer the olive branch to 
the disaffected Indians. Accordingly he dispatched 
messengers to the enemy's headquarters at Tioga with 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. GO 

an invitation for their chief men and counsellers to 
come down and meet him in conference. This invita- 
tion met with a response, — thus opening a new epoch 
in the history of our Inn — which may, not improperly, 
be styled the epoch of Indian occupation. Full seven- 
teen months elapsed before it closed.* 

The appearance at the Bethlehem Tavern on the 17th 
day of July of the last mentioned memorable year of 
"a lusty, raw-boned man, haughty and very desirous of 
respect and command," a Delaware of the Unamis, 
*' dressed in a fine dark-brown cloth coat laced with 
gold, which had been given him recently by the French 
at Niagara, caused a profound sensation among the 
inmates of the hostelry. They recognized an old 
acquaintance — Gideon of the Gnadenhutten Mission — 
in a new character as Tadeuskundt, the Delaware King. 
"This is the man," writes Parsons, " who persuaded his 
people to go over to the French and then to attack our 
frontiers." The chieftain was attended by a wild com- 
pany of adherents, men, women and children — (thirty- 
one all told), the women wearing shirts, as was observed, 
"made of Dutch tabic cloths," some of the spolia 

* For full particulars of what occurred at the Bethlehem Tavern during 
this occupation, we would point the reader to " The Account of the 
United Brethren at Bethlehem with the Commissioners of the Province 
of Pennsylvania, during the Indian War of 1755, '56, and '57," in the 
first Volume of the Memorials of the Mora-oian Church. Phila., J. B. 
Lippincott & Co. 1S70. 



70 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

opima taken in the last winter's forays into upper 
Northampton. 

These unwelcome guests Mr. Schaeffer had orders 
from the Commissioners to entertain ; — in fact, the 
orders of that body to him and his successors in 
office provided for the entertainment at the Bethlehem 
Inn (until the restoration of peace), of all Indians 
coming that way who had or who might have busi- 
ness with Government. Now for the King and his 
great men our worthy landlord provided until their 
departure for Easton, and for several days on their 
return from a treaty, which had formally opened at 
that place on the 28th of July, between Governor 
Morris, on the part of the Province, and Tadeus- 
kundt on the part of the Delawares. So it came to 
pass that the King ran up a score of il. \']s. at 
Schaeffer' s, for eating and drinking (to the latter he 
was much addicted. Parsons stating that " he could 
consume three quarts or a gallon of rum a day with- 
out becoming drunk " ) — the King's oldest son, a 
score of 10/. 14^". 2d. for sundries, and Elisabeth, the 
Queen, one of 5/. 19^. ad. "for victualing herself 
and three children from the 21st August to the ist 
of October, being forty-one days, at two and six pence 
per day." 

In the next place, the Governor having ordered 
Conrad Weisser (the rank of Colonel had been con- 
ferred upon the veteran interpreter in October of 



Tlie Crown Inn near Betlilehem. 71 

1755, ^°^ meritorious conduct at Tolheo) to come 
up from Heidelberg, in Berks, with wiiatever troops 
could be spared, it being his opinion *' that it was 
quite necessary to have a good number of soldiers at 
Easton during the sessions of the conference," — the 
Colonel and his men sojourned at our Inn both on 
their way to and on their return from that place. 
Thereupon Mr. Schaeiffer preferred the following 
charges against them, to wit : 

1. s. d. 
July 27, "For supper and breakfast for 48 men, Conrad 
1756. Weisser and company, including hay for ye 

horses, 31 

Aug. I, On their return from Easton for dinner to the 

same company, i 17 6 

4 iS 6 

Besides entertaining these celebrities, and soldiers 
sent from Fort Allen on detached service (there was 
scarcely a week but what some corporal's squad 
would halt at the Inn, and in July Lieut. McAlpine 
and Ensign JefFry of the Royal Americans opened a 
recruiting office in the house), Mr. Schaeffer was 
providing for several families of friendly Indians, 
who had passed the enemy's lines, and since June 
had been quartered upon him by order of Govern- 
ment. In this way his time and attention were 



72 The Crown Inn near Bethlelievv. 

fully engaged for the remaining months of his 
incumbency, during which, it is on record, the 
Province of Pennsylvania became indebted to the 
Bethlehem Tavern in the sum of fifty pounds cur- 
rency.* 

A New Englander by birth and education was the 
eighth in the succession of landlords at our Inn. 
This was Ephraim Culver — a native of the town of 
Lebanon, Litchfield County, Connecticut — who, 
sharing with his countrymen their innate propensity 
to migrate, had exchanged the land of steady habits 
for the wilds of Smithfield, in upper Northampton, 
whence he fled to the Barony on the irruption of the 
savages in December of 1755. -^^ Nazareth he 
united with the Moravians, to whom he had been 
previously attached. Although a miller, his appoint- 
ment to the Inn was in all respects a happy one as 
the sequel proved. In fact, as we shall see, he spent 
fourteen consecutive years of his life in the capacity 
of landlord at Moravian Inns; and further testimonial 
to his eminent fitness for so responsible a position, 
would be supererogatory. None of these years, how- 
ever, were as momentous or as full of incident as 
were the first two of his incumbency at the Bethle- 



*John Nicholas Schaeffer died at Nazareth in April of 1807. Frederic, 
a son, died at the same place in June of 1830, and Elizabeth, a grand- 
daughter, at Bethlehem, in July of 1857. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 73 

hem Tavern, which incumbency we shall proceed to 
review as briefly as is consistent with the just pro- 
portions of this history. 

A second conference with the "enemy Indians" 
convened at Easton on the 8th day of November next 
after Mr. Culver's entrance upon public life. This 
brought grist to his new mill at once. The Delawares 
must needs pass and repass by Bethlehem. There was 
a charm for them in its environs. And so it happened 
that in the evening of the 17th of the aforementioned 
month Mr. Culver and Elisabeth, m. n. Smith, from 
"The Oblong" in Dutchess County, New York, his 
wife, were called upon at short notice to provide a hot 
supper for forty-one Indians (the treaty had closed 
that afternoon), and at the same time to furnish 
them with forty-six quarts of beer, and then hay 
for their fourteen horses. But King Tadeuskundt 
called for two quarts of wine for himself and his 
counsellor Tapescohung, and for two quarts of oats 
for his beast. Next morning at their departure this 
merry company was supplied with one hundred and 
ten pounds of bread and two gallons of cider. 

The following memorandum extracted from the 
waste-book of the clerk of the Inn introduces us to 
some of the soldiers, whose presence at Easton it 
was intended should lend solemnity to the conference, 
and impress the Indians effectually with the military 
resources of the Province. 



74 T^^^ Ci'own Imh near Bethlehem. 

1. s. d. 
"Nov. 17, 1756. CajDt. Runals and Lieutenant Wether- 
hold Counrod Wiser soldier one In- 
sign one Drummer which came Avith 
the Indians from the Treety, Dr, for 
Supper and i pint wine, . . T) ^ 

Seven quarts beer, i dram, . . 28 
Five horses hay and oats and these 
mens Lodging, . . . . 5 10 
The Soldier with an express from the 
Governor from Easton to Redden 
for eating and drinking and horse 
keeping on hay and oats, . . 52 

17 2" 

Old Tatamy (Tot's Gap* in the Blue Mountain 
bears the chieftain's name to the present day) ate at 
the Inn on the day after the treaty; and Sam Evans 
and Young Capt. Harris, half-brothers to the King, 
were inmates of the house to the close of the month. 
It should have been stated that Governor Denny 
rode over to Bethlehem in the evening of the 17th 
of November, spent the night in the town,t and the 

"'•" On following the " Tot's Gap Road," as you leave Rocksbury, in 
Upper Mount Bethel, you come to this pass over the Mountain, four 
short miles west from the Delaware Water Gap. 

f It may interest some local antiquarian to know that in the absence 
of a public house at Bethlehem, at this time, a set of apartments on the 
second floor of tlie old stone house on Market street, built in 1753 for 
a store, were kept furnished for the accommodation of visitors of note. 
As Franklin, among others, lodged here occasionally during his cam- 



The Crown Inn near Bctldehevi. 75 

following morning set out for Philadelphia. He was ' 
the first Lieutenant Governor who enjoyed the im- 
munity provided for his rank and station by the 
thoughtful Proprietaries in their Great Patent for the 
Bethlehem Ferry. 

Passing over incidents of minor importance which 
crowded the first months of the year 1757, at our 
Inn — to wit: the preparations made by Jo Peepy 
and Lewis Montour, when on the eve of a mission 
in behalf of the Province to Tioga — the death of 
John Smalling, a grandson of the King, who died of 
small-pox and was buried in the cemetery on the 
Simpson Tract, for ten shillings — the maintenance of 
fifty-nine Indians who loitered about the house since 
the close of the treaty — the maintenance of such as 
were constantly on the wing between Fort Allen and 
Easton, or Fort Allen and Philadelphia — Hugh 
Crawford's two days' sojourn — and the presence of 
sundry lieutenants and ensigns at sundry times — we 
come to the month of July, in the last week of 
which month a third meeting for a treaty with the 
Indians opened at Easton. This was an important 
conference, and as its deliberations were expected to 
be on grave subjects, and touching the confirmation 
of peace, too, it was more numerously attended than 



paign on the frontiers, the house is justly entitled to more than ordinary- 
historical distinction, and to the name of " The Franklin House." 



76 The Crown Inn near Bctlilelicm. 

either of the preceding. A motley crowd of savages 
at the Bethlehem Tavern a week before the appointed 
day, heralded its approach, and on the 8th of August, 
(the very day of its close) seventy-five of the barba- 
rians supped at Culver's — and then called each for 
a half gill of rum and a pint of cider. From the 
tenth to the fifteenth of the month there were daily 
one hundred and fifty at table, and when not at 
table, at large on the premises. But these had 
things their own way. This is inferable from com- 
plaints lodged against them with the Commissioners 
by the people at the Inn, to the effect that the 
Indians engaged in robbing orchards and gardens on 
the Simpson Tract, that they wrangled over their 
cups, and that they occasionally visited Bethlehem, 
where they would vary their excesses, by discharging 
their fire-arms at random, and breaking lights in the 
windows. The King it is true, was present; so was 
Paxanosa, a king of the Shawanose. But neither 
their joint majesties, nor the high standing in Indian 
society of French Margaret, a niece of old Madam 
Montour of Otzinachson, or West Branch of Sus- 
quehanna, could restrain this lawless crew from hold- 
ing carnival as it chose. The King meanwhile ran 
up a score of lo/. \%s. 9^., Paxanosa bought him a 
pair of spectacles, with vvhich he paraded the streets 
of Bethlehem to the wonderment of its little boys — 
while French Margaret, with the fondness for colors 



Tlie Ci'own Inn near Bethlehem. 77 

instinctive in her sex, although she had passed the 
grand climacteric, invested in two pounds of vermi- 
lion. It was now that Indian occupation of the 
Bethlehem Inn had reached its zenith. Hereafter it 
waned. 

In the evening of the 7th of August, Gov. Denny- 
arrived at Bethlehem. Declining an invitation to 
lodge in the town, he crossed the ferry, and passed 
the night at Culver's. Here he was serenaded by 
the musical element of the town from boats on the 
river. In what manner he acknowledged the compli- 
ment, and whether, betwixt flute, viol and bassoon, 
and seventy-five Indians, he suffered from insomnia 
or not, — the annalist has failed to record. 

Three days after his Honor's departure, William 
Tatamy — son of old Tatamy who died at the house 
of John Jones* in Bethlehem township from the 

-■•John Jones was born in 1714, in Upper Merion, then in Philadelphia 
county. His father had immigrated from Wales with "other persons of 
excellent and worthy character, descendants of the ancient Britons," prin- 
cipally from Radnor, Brin-Maur and Haverford, in Merionethshire. 
Through their itinerants, Jones became acquainted with the Moravians, 
and was induced in 1749 to locate with his young family in the vicinity 
of Bethlehem, where he followed his trade, that of a blacksmith. In 
April of 1751, he purchased of Patrick Graeme, of Philadelphia (a 
brother of Dr. Thomas Graeme, and one of the proprietors of Bachelor's 
Hall, "a place of gluttony and good living," on its outskirts), a desirable 
tract of 500 acres of land on the left bank of the Lehigh and touching 
the east line of the Moravian lands. John Jones, the ancestor of the 
Joneses, of Bethlehem township, died on his farm, in June of 1781, but 



78 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

effects of a gunshot wound he had received at the 
hands of a reckless boy in the Craig settlement, while 
on his way to Easton with Tadeuskundt's Indians, 
(this was on the yth of July) — was buried in the 
grave-yard hard by the Inn, also, on the same day a 
Delaware woman from Lechawachneck (Pittston), 
one of the King's company. 

For some weeks after his subjects' return to the 
Susquehanna, Tadeuskundt divided his time between 
Fort Allen and Philadelphia. Having arranged with 
Government for the building of a town for himself 
and his people in Wyoming Valley on the opening 
of spring, and having purchased of one James Burd, 
merchant in the aforementioned city, a regimental 
coat and a gold-laced hat and cockade — the old man 
returned to Bethlehem. Here he passed the winter 
in a cabin which the Moravians built for him near 
their Inn* with the approval of the Provincial Com- 

was buried in the grave-yard at Bethlehem. His cliildren were educated at 
Moravian schools. Jesse, a son, was collector of excise for Northampton 
County prior to the Revolution; The house In which young Tatamy 
was nursed stood on the site of the late residence of George Jones. 

* Renter's valuable draft of " Moravian lands lying on the south side 
of the Lehigh," drawn in 1757 (this draft is referred to more fully on 
a later page), designates three cabins located on said draft on the river's 
bank, in front of the building at present occupied by the offices of the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, — "Indians." Here then dwelt that 
troublesome people, which the government saw fit to impose upon the 
Moravians during the Indian War. Perhaps the King's winter house was 
blocked up on this same plot. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 



missioners. But he and his family until their depar- 
ture for the Indian Country, drew daily rations 
from the Bethlehem Tavern. The income of the 
house during the busy period which we have just re- 
viewed, was, as we might expect, unusually large. 
Its net profits for the year ending 31st December, 
1757, amounted to 195/. \os. \id. We believe they 
were never exceeded in any twelve months subse- 
quently. 

George Klein, from Kirchart, in the Lower Palati- 
nate (he had immigrated to the Province in 1727, 
and settled in Conestoga, where he married Ann 
Bender), is entitled, perhaps, to rank among the 
landlords of the Inn, in as far as he relieved Mr. 
Culver on one occasion for several months during 
the latter's incumbency. This is the same Klein 
who donated some two hundred and fifty acres of 
land to the Moravians (they had been deeded to 
Klein by one Jacob Baer, in 1737) for a settle- 
ment, — which since 1762, has developed into the 
unique village of Litiz, in Warwick township, Lan- 
caster County. But the "Klein Tract is watered by 
Carter's Run, which heads in a spring remarkable at 
once for the volume of water it throws out, and for 
exhibiting a natural phenomenon rarely seen, — it hav- 
ing been observed that as often as a leaf falls trem- 
blingly from the overhanging aspens, — up from the 
transparent depths of the fountain there rises a 



80 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

second trembling like unto its fellow, until the twin 
shapes mingle upon the surface of the pellucid pool. 
This fons sacer is known as " The Great Spring," or 
" The Litiz Spring," and yet some profanely, 
forsooth, care it "Venus' Mirror." 

King Tadeuskundt bade adieu to Bethlehem on 
the 1 6th of May, 1758, much to the relief of Mr. 
Culver, whose last year at the Inn consequently 
proved to be one of comparative repose. Having 
accepted an appointment to *' The Rose" on the 
Barony of Nazareth, our well-tried host set out for 
that place in March of 1759. ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ 
again before the close of this narrative. 

Andrew Home and Dorothea, his wife, who immi- 
grated in the autumn of 1744, directed the affairs of 
the Bethlehem Tavern during the next triennium. 
A reference to the docket kept by the clerk of the 
Court of General Quarter Sessions for the County 
of Northampton shows that Mr. Home was twice 
recommended to his Honor, the Governor, as " a fit 
person to keep a house of entertainment in said 
County." This administration was not an eventful 
one. Its close, however (Mr. Home retired in 
March of 1762), marks an important change in the 
polity of the Moravians in Pennsylvania, which 
change, after the loose threads of this history, shall 
have been woven rightly into its web up to "the date 
of its inauguration, shall be duly considered. 



TJic Crown Imv near Bethlehem. SI 

To do the former, we must here turn back in order 
to follow the improvements which had been progress- 
ing on the Simpson Tract since the erection of a barn 
in 1747, and to notice the condition of the Bethlehem 
Ferry. In February of 1752, water was led in 
pipes from a spring in the mountain side, just 
without the south line of the tract, so as to irrigate 
the lowlands and increase the border of natural 
meadow, that skirted the run, which, in the rainy 
season, poured tribute into the Lecha, debouching 
into the ravine east of the Inn.* A draft of " Beth- 



*Some readers of these pages may remember that thirty years ago, 
decaying fruit trees and the foundation walls of a dwelling in ruins, were 
to be seen on the ascent of the mountain, at a spot now included 
within the grounds of the Lehigh University. The spot was for years a 
favorite resort for such of the people of Bethlehem as loved to recreate 
themselves with cake and coffee under green trees and by running water 
in pleasant summer afternoons, and was familiarly called " The Old 
Man's Place." Its origin, for want of a history, was^ naturally enough 
involved in tradition, and next in fable and mystery. It was said to have 
been the retreat of an anchorite — of an alchemist in search of the phil- 
osopher's stone and the elixir vitae. Now these remains were the relics of 
a three-acre improvement made by old John Lischer, of Oley, in 1750, 
on a tract of 87 acres, which the Moravians purchased of the Honorable 
Proprietaries two years later, whereupon Lischer sold out his claim for 
9/., and removed elsewhere. " The Old Man's Place" or " The 
Hermitage" (so it is called in the Journal kept by the misses of the 
Boarding School in 1788, in which year, that journal states, there were 
on the spot the " ruins of an old cabin and twelve apple trees"), was 
included in the 115 acres of woodland which Asa Packer purchased 
of the Moravians in 1853. 



The Crown Inn near Betlilehenv. 



lehem Lands on the South of the Lecha," drawn 
by C. G. Renter in July of 1757 (Mr. Reuter 
immigrated in 1756, removed to North Carolina 
in 1759, where he was actively engaged until his 
decease at Salem in 1777, as surveyor and drafts- 
man) — shows the following to have been the con- 
dition of the Tract in that year. The one hundred 
and ten acres on the west side of the Salisbury 
road were unbroken woodland and heavily timbered ; 
east of that road, and as far as the run (this was 
lined at intervals by meadow, amounting in all to 
eight acres), down to the river, we find thirty-seven 
acres under cultivation, a stretch of forty acres on 
the river's bank extending from the run to the east 
line of the tract also under the plow, and seventy-nine 
acres of woodland, stretching south of the same up 
the first acclivity of the mountain. Reuter's draft 
furthermore, shows a large barn two hundred and 
forty feet due east from the Inn, which was in 
course of erection in the summer of 1757. There 
was no material change of this status (saving some 
small clearings) until subsequent to the dissolution 
of the Bethlehem Economy in 1762. 

We left the Bethlehem Ferry in the hands of 
Daniel Kunckler. Now its growing prosperity under 
Proprietary patronage suggesting a change in its con- 
struction, in January of 1758, it was converted into 
a rope-ferry, being ever afterwards conducted on the 



The Crown Inn near Betlilehem. S3 

mysterious principles of the parallelogram of forces, 
which such form of ferry involves. A chronicler of 
that day in noting this improvement, observes with 
somewhat of enthusiasm, that " whereas, formerly in 
times of high water four men found it difficult to 
effect a passage in less than half an hour, the flat 
crosses the river by the rope usually in ninety 
seconds." Time, therefore, was made, and time even 
then was money. John Garrison, a son of Capt. 
Nicholas Garrison of the Irene (whose name is 
being gratefully perpetuated by one of the streets 
of the borough of Bethlehem), was appointed ferry- 
man in September of 1758, Daniel Kunckler, a 
second time in 1759, ^""^ Francis Steup, in October 
of 1 76 1. The following entry in the Economy's 
Ledger, under date of November 9th, 1761, indicates 
that improvements in the important appendage to 
the Bethlehem Inn, had not ceased; — "Paid for 
ninety fathoms of shroud hawser, pulleys and tack- 
ling for the ferry-flat ill. i8j. 2V/." 

Before pursuing this history into the new period 
which dawned upon the Bethlehem Inn and all 
things else on the Simpson Tract, in the spring 
of 1762, it remains for us to enumerate the worthies 
residing in the neighborhood of Bethlehem, who, 
when on business or in search of relaxation, availed 
themselves of its profl^ered hospitality, during the 
seventeen years which we have just reviewed. These, 



Tlic Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 



and not occasional wayfarers, it should be borne 
in mind, gave life and character to the house, stamping 
it with their individuality, regulating its intellectual 
commodities, and by the expression of their views on 
the weather, the crops, the politics and the news of 
the day, investing it in the natural order of things with 
all the importance of a rural exchange. Now Saucon 
township, as we may expect, furnished most of the 
knights who thus tilted at joust or tournament 
under the roof of the old Bethlehem Inn. — Thence 
came Joerg Freyman, Philip Kratzer, Hans Fahs, 
Michael Weber, Friedrich Weber, Peter Graff, miller, 
Balzar Beil, Balzar Lahr, Christian Laubach, miller 
on Laubach's Creek (he died in 1768), Friedrich 
Laubach, Anton Lerch {altvater, died in 1793), 
Peter Lerch, Kratzer Lerch, Johann Jacob Gross, 
Joerg Peter Knecht, Hans Landis, Dieter Gauff, 
Joerg Raub, Joerg Bachmann (whose orchard fur- 
nished cider for the Bethlehem Inn, during the first 
decade of its existence), Rudolph Oberly, Jacob 
Gangwehr, Matthias Riegel {altvater)^ Heinrich 
Groessman, Richard Freeman (the ancestor of the 
Freemans of Freemansburg, born in 17 17 in Cecil 
County, Maryland, died in 1784, and buried on 
his farm called the "Private Heck"), Christian 
Heller, Ludwig Heller, Stoffel Heller, Simon Heller 
(the latter we believe is the same who settled near 
Wind Gap, and yet the genealogies of the Hellers, 



The Crown Inn. near BethleheTn. 85 

for a want of visitations of the heralds, are perplex- 
ing), Richard Ley, Valentine Santee, Anthony Boehm 
(a son of Rev. John Philip Boehm of Whitpaine 
township, Philadelphia County, to whom there were 
patented by the three Penns, in 1740, two hundred 
acres of land situate on the Saucon Creek, which 
tract he and his wife Ann Mary, "for and in con- 
sideration of the natural love and affection which 
they have and do bear for and toward their son " 
deeded to the aforesaid Anthony in September of 
1747), besides Boyers, Ruchs, Transous, Reiden- 
auers, Hesses and Weitknechts. 

From Macungy and Salisbury there would come 
to the Bethlehem Inn, with produce for the Bethle- 
hem market, Bastian Knauss, Jacob Ehrenhardt, 
Martin Bomberger, Heinrich Guth (sometime a dis- 
ciple of Conrad Beissel), Jean Ditter alias Piper, Jean 
Ditter the younger (whose account in the Economy's 
Ledger is debited with two jackets and a pair of 
jumps* with whalebone, for his daughter Marguerite), 



* An eminent lexicographer tells us ihat jumps were " a kind of limber 
stays or waistcoat worn by females;" and an equally eminent etymolo- 
gist assures us that the word is derivable from Fr. jupe, a long petti- 
coat, Pr. jupa, L. Lat. jupa, juppa, It. giubba, giuppa, Sp. al-juba from 
Ar. al-jubhah. Hence it would be erroneous to confound the article of 
apparel purchased by her fond father for his Marguerite, with another of 
feminine full dress, much in vogue in our own day, of which the name 
jumps, might be suggestive to the mind of some incautious reader. 



86 TliG ' Ci'own Inn near Bethlehem. 

Casper Kraemer alias " Der lange Kasper," Martin 
Ginglnger, Friedrich Kemmerer, Nicolaus Gemper- 
ling (who stands charged to this day ten shillings 
for "curing his leg which was broken" in May of 
1746), Adam Blanck, Adam Stocker, Heinrich Rit- 
ter, Franz Roth, Rudolph Schmidt, David Giesy, 
Michael Schweyer, Conrad Wetzel and Jacob Zim- 
mermann. 

But the Cruikshank farm sent Quash and Andrew 
(slaves from Montserrat), and the Jennings farm, old 
Solomon, and John and Isaiah his sons. From 
Forks Ferry came Adam Merckel, Christian Minier, 
Heinrich Hertzel, Conrad Bittenbender, Michael 
Moore and David English the ferryman; — from 
the Menagassi, old Peter Schuelpp with famous 
butter ; — from " The Drylands," Valentine Kraeter, 
Michael Koch, Michael Klaus, Eberhardt Kreiling 
and Jacob Abel (some of whom in September of 
1752, were convicted "as disturbers of the peace of 
our Lord the King for having unlawfully entered 
into and taken possession of land included within 
the Proprietaries' Manor of Fermor, neither located 
nor surveyed by any warrant or order from said 
Proprietaries, — and who thereupon were arrested and 
to the gaol of our Lord the King in the County of 
Bucks, were caused to be led") ; — from the adjacents 
of Nazareth, north, Philip Bossert, Franz Clevel and 
George Clevel ; — from the adjacents of Nazareth, 



Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 87 

east, Abraham Lefevre and Johannes Lefevre ; — from 
the adjacents of Nazareth, west, Simon Tromm, 
Philip Tromm, Friedrich Scholl, Peter- Doll, Han- 
nickel Heil and Friedrich Althomus; — from the Craig 
Settlement of Ulster Scots on heads of Calisuck and 
Menagassi, on market days with flax of their wives' 
spinning the following; to wit: Hugh Wilson (from 
Cootehill, County Cavan, Ulster), James Horner, 
Thomas Craig, William Craig, James Craige, Robert 
Gregg, Robert Dobbin, Samuel Brown, Robert 
Clendinen, James Carruthers, Robert Alison, John 
McCartney, Samuel Barron, John Redhill, James 
Gray, John Boyd, James Kerr, John McNair, Wil- 
liam McCaa, James Ralston, Thomas Heron, Archi- 
bald Barron, Robert Lattimore, Robert Gibson, 
John McLean, Archibald Greer, Patrick McCul- 
lough, Giles Windsor, Thomas Thompson, Patrick 
Sufferan, John Campbell, Rowland Smith, Patrick 
Evans, James McLeary, Daniel Burr, James Eggle- 
ston and Joseph Perry; — from the Minlsinks with 
deer skins and horns for barter, Daniel Brodhead, 
Adam (his slave), Daniel Roberts, Hermanus Decker, 
Joseph Haines, Francis Jones, Samuel Vanarmen, 
John Aguder and John George Salade; — and statedly, 
iron men from Durham, from Hopewell, Chelsea 
and Greenwich Forges, from Popadickon, and from 
Oxford Furnace and the Union Iron Works, in 
quest of Moravian manufactures, or the Moravian 



88 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

Doctor's services, in return for bar-iron and stove 
plates* 

Thus the Bethlehem Inn was peopled by men of 
diverse nationalities in the days of the olden time; 
for the fame of the goodly house had gone abroad. 

It was indeed a great change which the disso- 
lution of the Economy at Bethlehem, in the spring 
of 1762, brought with it for the Moravians in 
Pennsylvania. For twenty years its members had 
been associated almost as closely as the members 

* Bethlehem 4th May, 1746. Marcus Hulings of Durham, Dr. 

1. s. d. 

To curing the bellows-maker's leg that was broken, 300 

" " the man that hurt his ribs, ...030 
" bleeding himself, ......010 

" " one of his miners, ....010 

3 5 o 
JOHN MATTHEW OTTO, M. D. 

Greenwich Iron Works, 12 July, 1750. 
Mr. Frederic Oerter, Clerk at Bethlehem, 
Sir: 

This is to desire you to please to order something from Doctor Otto 
to cure persons that is poisoned in mowing grass — and please order 
your saddler to make conveniences in my saddle to carry a pistol on 
each side. I have been informed that you have a set of wagon wheels 
ready made. If you have, I should be glad if you would send them 
along with your wagon, and you will much oblige 

Your humble servant, 

JACOB STARN. 
P. S. Pray don't fail to send above things when your wagon next 
comes this way for iron. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehertv. 89 

of a family, actuated like the latter by a common 
interest and pursuing a common purpose. In view 
of their circumstances in those early times, this form 
of social constitution was, without doubt, wisely 
adopted by them for the attainment of the object for 
which they had removed to the new world. Under 
its influence they hoped to be able to concen- 
trate their powers for the vigorous prosecution of 
that object, which was a mission among the abo- 
riginies. This, however, had received a severe 
blow in the Indian war; — directly, in as far as its 
organization was almost irreparably deranged — and 
indirectly, in consequence of a change in the rela- 
tions hitherto existing between the whites and 
their copper-colored neighbors. Nor could their 
own members fail to perceive tokens of a decay in 
their polity, such as eventually manifests itself in 
all states founded upon principles which unduly 
disregard the interest and claims of the individual 
with too high a regard for those of the common- 
wealth. These considerations moved Count Zin- 
zendorf, who controlled the afi^airs of the Mora- 
vian Church until his death in 1760, to urge the 
dissolution of the Bethlehem Economy at as early 
a day as was consistent with a just provision for 
the welfare of those by whose labors it had been 
so long sustained. This dissolution was finally 
effected in April of 1762. It involved an entire 



90 The Ci'own Inn near Bethlehem. 

reconstruction of the relation of labor in the little 
community, the members of which hereafter fol- 
lowed occupations for their own emolument, or con- 
ducted branches of industry for the Proprietor of 
the estates at a fixed compensation. In this way 
it came to pass that the Bethlehem Inn, in April 
of the last mentioned year was intrusted to a sala- 
ried agent, and that, with all things else which it 
had, forever passed from under a patriarchal form 
of government, it changed its mask to play a 
different role. Elated now at Its new character, or 
jealous, perhaps, of a rival claimant for popular 
favor on the other side (the Sun Inn, which after 
a lingering struggle into existence had been comple- 
ted so far as to entertain "guests" for the first 
time on the 25th of September, 1760), — our house 
clamored for a distinctive name. Hereupon the 
Moravians, who were a loyal people, having been 
the recipients of numerous favors at the hands of the 
British Crown, named it das gasthaus zur krone, 
— DIE KRONE, — THE CROWN, — and cmblazoncd that 
ancient ^..ijblem of royalty upon a sign-board which 
swung on a post near the head of the lane leading 
from the highway to its hospitable portal.* 



*That rare, and by the antiquary highly prized, view of Bethlehem in 
the latter days of the Economy, drawn by Nicholas Garrison, Jr., and 
engraved on copper by J. Noual (it was published November 24th, 1757), 



The Ci^owa Inn near Bethlehem. 91 



John Lischer, a native of Hilzoff, margraviate 
of Wittgenstein, in the Palatinate, but last from 
Oley, Berks County, was the first landFord of The 
Crown, he and his wife Catharine, ne'e Loesch, 
from Tulpehocken, having been installed in office 
on the 27th day of March, 1762. They stipulated 
to administer the affairs of the Inn in consideration 
of their living, and 25/. Pennsylvania currency per 
annum, — and their hostler to assume the duties in- 
cumbent upon him for 10/. and the customary 
perquisite of 1'rinkgeld. Now the house, together 
with its appurtenances, was on the aforementioned 
day appraised at 267/. igs. 

Mr. Lischer,. after having replenished his cham- 
bers, his kitchen and larder (we find that in the 
charming month of June, he added the luxury of 
napkins to his table service), and having acted upon 
the suggestion of his employers to raise poultry 
largely — "provided their presence do not conflict 
with the interests of the farm " — engaged also in 
apiculture, erecting an elaborate apiary or bee- house 
which in time yielded luscious comb for the hungry 
traveller. From one George Schlosser of Philadel- 



shows the Inn in the f'orcgrounci, and a sign-post witli swinging board, 
near the head of the lane. From this it would appear that the hostelry 
then already bore a device as well as a name. Tiiese may have been 
" The Crown," but that appellation docs not appear in official records 
until in 1762, as stated above. 



92 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem'. 

phia, grocer, he purchased his needed supplies of 
Antigua, Barbadoes and New England rums, Lisbon 
and Madeira, coffee, sugar and limes, and favorite 
brands of roll-tobacco, known in those days specifi- 
cally as " pig-tail," " hog-tail," and " cut-and-try." 
But neighbor Jones levied upon all things spirit- 
uous at the Inn for excise, mulcting it on the 29th 
of June, 1762, in the sum of 3/. pr. 4^. for two 
hundred and forty-four gallons of liquor in store. 
The Christian's Spring Economy supplied The 
Crown with small beer. Christian Diemer, the baker 
at Bethlehem with bread, and Henry G. Krause, 
the butc-her, with beef; — the latter staple commodity 
being delivered over ye water into the hands of 
Mistress Lischer at the rate of three pence per 
pound. In this way all honorable steps were taken 
to place the hostelry upon a sound working basis ; 
its head had grown to be popular, and the routine 
of its daily life* was differing none from that of 
other rural Inns as the weeks and months passed 
by, when in the summer of 1763, there came rumors 
of Indian Incursions In the then far West, and of 



*At this time, new names appear in tlie records of the Inn — to wit: 
those of John Sevitz, Jonas Weber, Henry Brunner, Tobias Wendel, 
George Edelman, Henry Geisinger and William Stuber, inhabitants of 
the two Saucons ; John Jjeger, from the Drylands Berndt Straub, Mattes 
Schoener, Ludwig Frantz, Andrew Raub, Benjamin Kiegel, Johannes 
Goetz, and Hannes Melchlor. 



TJie Ci^own, Inn near Bethlehem. 93 

an impending Indian war. At the very time when 
the Ottawa chieftain Pontiac was prosecuting the 
siege of Detroit (i2th May to 12th October), in the 
course of that mighty effort to drive the English 
from the country, for which he had enlisted all the 
western tribes, — lesser war-parties, at the bidding of 
their great leader, had crossed the AUeghanies and 
were committing depredations upon the frontiers of 
the Province. Before daybreak on the morning of 
the 8th of October, some Delaware warriors attacked 
the house of John Stenton, in Allen township 
(Stenton's house is remembered by aged residents 
of Weaversville as standing on the main road from 
Bethlehem to Mauch Chunk, eight miles north- 
west from the former place, on the property owned 
by the widow of the late Thomas Fatzinger), know- 
ing that Capt. Jacob Wetterhold of the Province 
service with a squad of men was lodging there for 
the night. Meeting with Jean the wife of James 
Horner, who was on her way to a neighbors for 
coals to light her morning's fire, the Indians, fear- 
ing that she might betray them or raise an alarm, 
despatched her with their tomahawks.* Thereupon 
they surrounded Stenton's. No sooner had Capt. 

*You may read her obituary record in the cemetery of the Englisli 
Presbyterian Church of Allen Township, in these words: 

" In memory of Jean, the wife of James Horner, who suffered death 
at the hands of savage Indians, 8th October, 1763, aged 50 years." 



94 Tlw Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

Wetterholds' servant stepped out of the house (he 
had been sent to saddle the Captain's horse) than 
he was shot down. The report brought his master 
to the door, when on opening it he received a mortal 
wound. Sergeant Lawrence McGuire, in his attempt 
to draw him in, was also dangerously wounded 
and fell. Thereupon the Lieutenant advanced. He 
was confronted by an Indian, who, leaping upon 
the bodies of the fallen men, presented a pistol, 
which the lieutenant thrust aside as it was be- 
ing discharged — thus escaping with his life and 
succeeding also in expelling the savage. The Indians 
now took a position at a window, and there shot 
Stenton as he was in the act of rising from bed. 
Rushing from the house, the wounded man ran 
for a mile and dropped down a corpse. His wife 
and two children, meanwhile, had secreted them- 
selves in the cellar, where they were fired upon 
three times, but without being struck. Capt. Wetter- 
hold, despite his suffering, dragged himself to a 
window, through which he shot one of the savages 
in the act of applying a torch to the house. Here- 
upon taking up the dead body of their comrade 
the besiegers withdrew. Having on their retreat 
plundered the house of James Allen, they attacked 
Andrew Hazlitt's, where they shot and scalped a 
man, shot Hazlitt himself after a bold defence, 
and then tomahawked his fugitive wife and two 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 95 

children in a barbarous mannner. Finally they set 
fire to his house, and next to that of Philip Kratzer, 
and crossing the Lehigh, made oflf with their spoils 
for the mountain. 

Intelligence of this sad affair reached Bethlehem a 
few hours after its occurrence, whereupon a small 
armed force was sent to the scene of the surprise to 
bring the wounded men to town for surgical treat- 
ment. So it came to pass, that Captain Wetterhold 
breathed his last at The Crown on the 9th of Octo- 
ber, and was buried next day in the grave-yard near 
by. We find the following charge on record in The 
Crown's day-book under date of loth October, 1763 : 



1. 


s. 


d. 


' Capt. Jacob Wetterhold, Dr. to 






I pint wine, .... 


I 


2 


For I pint beer, .... 




2]/2 


" eating and drinking for his 






attendants. 


2 





" oats and pasture for 2 horses, . 


3 





" a shroud, .... 


6 





" ferriage for his attendants ten 






times, .... 


2 






14 '4}^ " 

Sergeant McGuire lay upwards of three weeks at 
the Inn under the care of Dr. Otto. It is stated 
that the body of the Captain's servant who was the 



96 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

first to fall at Stenton's, was also brought to Bethle- 
hem, and along with another victim was interred on 
what was then known as " the Burnside Farm (now 
William Lerch's), on the Menagassi. Sergeant Mc- 
Guire's charges at the Inn, dated 8th November, 
1763, are as follows: 



Sergeant L. McGuire, Dr. 






For 4 half pints wine, . 


2 


4 


" beer and cider royal, 




9 


" cash, 


7 


6 


" his wife's diet for eight days, 


10 





" 2 breakfasts. 


I 





' ' I horse at hay. 




8 


" 25 days' diet and attendance 






at js. gt/. per day. 


2 3 


9 



360" 

This bold foray struck terror, as well it might, 
into the neighborhood, and next day The Crown Inn 
swarmed with refugees from Allen and Lehigh town- 
ships. A panic also seized the inhabitants of Saucon 
valley, who crowded its precincts on two occasions 
between the nth and i8th of the eventful month, 
while the arrival of several companies of mounted 
men from Bucks in that interval, heightened the 
general confusion at the house. It was late in De- 
cember before the last of the fugitives had returned 
to their homes. One of their number, a woman. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 97 

died at The Crown on the 19th of October, and was 
buried on the hill. 

On the loth of September, prior to the occur- 
rences just narrated, there set out from Bethlehem, 
via The Crown for Philadelphia, a " stage-wagon" for 
the convenience of public travel, — it being the first 
of those successive generations of " swift and sure" 
lines of coaches, which tortured mortal flesh, until 
their utter extinction by steam. George Klein was 
the father of this enterprise, which must needs have 
been a humble one, in order to be prophetic of 
higher creations in times to come. John Koppel 
drove the wagon for 40/. per annum. But as his 
coach was seldom full he prudently engaged in the 
additional transportation of freight, carrying either 
groceries for the store, or train-oil for the tanner, 
or iron for the nail-smith, or wool for the clothier. 
We note, as indicative of an early Israelitish migra- 
tion into Northampton, that Koppel, in June of 
1763, conveyed household furniture for Mordecai, a 
Jew of Easton, and for Jacob, a Jew of Allentown, 
to those respective seats of traffic. Despite this 
mode of supplementing a cargo, and a charge of ten 
shillings for a passenger over the route, the enter- 
prise sank 82/. lis. 'jd. in the first year of its exis- 
tence. Nevertheless, for many years, hereafter the 
curiosity of the habitues of the Inn was more than 
ordinarily exercised on Friday afternoon of every 



98 TJie Crown Inn near Betlileliein. 

week, on the return of the stage-wagon from the 
capital.* 

The month of November of 1763, proved an ex- 
citing one at Bethlehem and at The Crown, as the 
popular feeling against the Moravian Indians (who 
had made that place their asylum since November of 
1755, consequent upon the late inroads) was then 
culminating. To such a degree did prejudice against 
another race then blind men's reason, that Govern- 
ment hastened to order the removal of this unfortu- 
nate people for safe-keeping to the capital. Ac- 
cordingly in the afternoon of the eighth of the afore- 
mentioned month, the Moravian Indians (there were 
one hundred and twenty-one, men, women and chil- 
dren) rendezvoused at Lischer's, preparatory to their 
exodus. This was a memorable day at the Inn. 
The following record, the last relating to this event- 
ful administration, points to the return of these 
exiles in March of 1765, and to their subsequent 
transfer to Wyalusing on the Susquehanna : 



*In November of 1764, Klein sold out to John Francis Oberlin, the 
latter paying him for the wagon, a pale mare, a sorrel [der Fuc/is), a 
roan [der Bock), a bay, harness, chains, an axe, a tar-bucket, and eight 
sacks for oats — 52/, Penna. cy. In Henry Miller's Almanac for 1765, 
in a " specification of the times of the arrival and departure of post- 
riders, mail-coaches and market-boats, at and from Philadelphia," v^e 
find the following announcement — " Every Thursday morning a mail- 
coach leaves Race St. for Bethlehem, and returns on Tuesday to Phila- 
delphia." 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehein. 99 







1. s. 


d. 


" I Ai:>ril 1765. 


Joseph Fox, Esq., Dr. 
For an order of Thomas Apty for 
keeping horses when he came 
with ye Indians from Philadel- 
phia, viz. : 








For 8 horses 5 days at hay, . 


2 13 


4 




- 7 - 7 - . . 


3 5 


4 




" oats for " . 


16 


6 




" ferriage, .... 


3 


2 



6 iS 4 " 

It remains to be stated that the Inn made a 
deficit of 41/. los. (^\d. for the year ending ist 
April, 1765, — that Mr, Lischer on the 19th of that 
month exchanged its responsibilities for those of The 
Rose on the Barony — that thence he was called in 
1772, to take charge of the Nazareth Inn, and that 
he died at Nazareth in May of 1782. 

Ephraim Culver succeeded to The Crown on the 
20th day of April, 1765, — that being the date of this 
his second coronation, — and swayed the scepter at the 
Inn for a period of five years, which flowed gently 
down the stream of time. It was to a remarkable 
degree, what we might characterize as an introspec- 
tive life which host and hostelry led during this in- 
cumbency, in the absence of Indian wars, and de- 
spite an ominous movement in the Province and 
her sister colonies, which augured no good to the 



100 



The Crowiv Inn near Bethleht 



Proprietary Government and to the Seigniory of 
Windsor. The brief records of the house, accord- 
ingly, as we may expect, refer ahnost exclusively to 
its economy, thereby, however, acquainting us with 
much that is pleasant to know. Thus, for instance, 
the following inventory of stock taken on the 19th 
of April, of the last mentioned year, throws a clear 
light upon what were the appurtenances of the Inn 
at that date. "There is on hand at The Crown, 
this day — 







1. 


s. 


d. 


Kitchen Furniture, 


valued at 


17 


17 


II 


Drinking vessels, 




6 


18 


9 


Tea and coffee vessels, . 




6 


2 


10 


Earthen ware. 




I 


II 


X 


Bedding, 




3- 


10 





Linen, 




3 


2 


4 


Sundry utensils, 




II 


13 


6 


Casks, &c., 




5 


II 


6 


Tools at ye barn and stable. 




2 


4 


10 


Garden tools. 




2 


3 


2 



89 15 11" 

A second record testifies to the character of the 
literature which was provided by the host for the 
intellectual entertainment of his guests. It reads 
thus: "March 21st, 1766, paid Messrs. Franklin and 
Hall, for the newspapers for last year, \os. 'jdJ' 
And again, "March 17th, 1767, paid Henry Miller, 
for the newspapers for two years past, \is." 



The Crown Inn near Bethleliem. 101 

In 1767, our Inn was taxed 5/. iSj. 6d. for the 
Province, and il. ys. 6d. for the county. On the 
19th of April, of the following year, its premises 
were for a time jeopardized by a bush-fire, that swept 
down the mountain ; but neighbors coming to the 
rescue, the enemy was subdued, at a cost of one and 
threepence, for rum, to the Inn. Finally, an exam- 
ination of accounts of the house by duly authorized 
auditors, on the i8th of April, 1770, discovered 
among the rest, that the sum total of sundry small 
outstanding debts due to the Crown amounted to 20/. 
IS. 8i. 

We left the Bethlehem Ferry in the hands of 
Francis Steup, in the winter of 1761. On the disso- 
lution of the Economy it was united with the Inn, 
and managed for one year by Augustus H. Franke, 
in consideration of 23/. per annum, in addition to 
his and his wife's board, reckoned at seven and six- 
pence per week for each. He was assisted by Peter 
Petersen, who is charged on one and the same day 
with one pair of leather breeches, new, \6s. 9^., and 
one pair ditto, old, 5^-., whence we infer that his 
position was a wearing one and no sinecure. Franke's 
receipts for the year ending the 27th of March, 
1763, amounted to 165/. 11^., of which sum 73/. 
18^. Gld., were net proceeds, which goes to prove 
that the Ferry (then booked at 185/. i8j. 4^., 
including wharves, flat, rope, and shelter belong- 



102 TJie Ci'own Inn near Bethlehem. 

ing thereto, four canoes and chains), was a desirable 
investment.* 

Valentine Fuehrer (whom we shall meet again in 
the course of this narrative) succeeded Franke as ferry- 
man, and continued a lodger at the Crown, as his 
predecessors had been, until the completion of the 
Ferry House,t erected in the autumn of 1765, at the 



* The rates of ferriage at this time may in part be deduced from the 
following item, dated " 31st October, 1762." The Bethlehem Farm, 

Frederic Beckel, farmer, Dr. to the Ferry : 

1. s. p. 

For ferrying i wagon, ......050 

" " I horse three times, ....010 

" " 344 sheep, , . . . . . o 18 9 J 

" " the sisters who worked in harvest one 

week and a half, back and forth, . 4 o i\ 



f The Ferry-house stood near the site of the house of entertainment 
enigmatically ycleped first, The Mondray House, but now The Ex- 
change, until work at the Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1853, caused its 
removal. After the Bethlehem Ferry had been superseded by a bridge 
(in 1794), the house was occupied by the successive toll-men in the 
employ of the Bridge Company — first by Valentine Fuehrer, next in 
1801 by Peter Rose (he had served under Braddock), and after him suc- 
cessively by John Stotz, Massa Warner (he died in the house in May 
of 1824), Benjamin Warner, John Adam Luckenbach and Daniel Lawall. 
In 1842, subsequent to the erection of a toll-house at the northern 
terminus of the present bridge, Daniel Desh came into possession of the 
ferry-house, and occupied it for six years. He then rented it to Jacob 
Werst. The last occupant was one " Dutch John," who also removed 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 



103 



southern terminus of the ferry. This he occupied 
on the 17th of October of that year. It was built 
by David Kunz, from Moravia, carpenter, at a cost 
of 19/. lyj. ^\d. 

Here it behooves us to present to the reader the 
following : 



chcdule of rates of Ferriage at the Bethlehem Ferry. 

January, 1767. 

1. s. 



For a loaded wagon and four horses, 


3 





" an empty do. do. 


2 





" a loaded wagon and two horses, . 


2 


6 


'' an empty do. do. 


2 


6 


" a carriage with four wheels anc 


I two 




horses, .... 


2 


6 


" a chair and one horse. 




I 


6 


"a do. two horses, 




I 


lO 


" a sled and four do. 




3 





" a do. two do. 




I 


6 


" a do. one horse. 




I 


2 


" a single horse, 






6 


" a number of horses, each 






4 


" a footman. 




2 coppers. 


" a single ox or cow. 






6 


" a number of oxen or cows, each 




4 


" a single sheep, hog or calf, each 


2 coppers. 


" ten head of the same. 


I 


0" 



the building, and from its sound timbers constructed a dwelling, whicli 
he located on the river's bank, near its old haunt. 



10 4 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

Accompanying this schedule was the following 

" Advertisement. 

"All such persons as bring wheat, rye, Indian 
corn, and buckwheat, to the grist-mill at Bethlehem, 
for grinding, are free of ferriage, provided they 
observe the following regulations, to wit : 

One horse with two bushels of wheat, rye, or Indian corn. 
One do. '' three do. buckwheat. 
One wagon and four horses with twenty bushels of wheat. 
One do. " two do. " fifteen do. 

One cart '' do. " twelve do. 

One do. '' one do. " eight do. 

One sled "■ two do. *' twelve do. 

One do. " one do. " six do. 

Besides the above-mentioned quantities of grain, 
all kinds of provisions brought for sale in Bethle- 
hem are allowed on the same wagon or horse. 
Furthermore, all persons that come to church at 
Bethlehem on Sundays or holydays are ferriage free, 
provided they do not come for the purpose of 
transacting business, or carry parcels, — in which case 
they are to pay the usual rates." 

There is an event in Mr. Fuehrer's life as ferry- 
man, which it is proper to state at this point in 
our history. When Governor John Penn was tarry- 
ing a few days at Bethlehem, in April of 1768 (he 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 10 o 

was wont to visit the Aliens, of AUentown, Ann, 
his wife, being a daughter of the Chief Justice), 
it so happened on the twenty-seventh of the month, 
that the men of the village were fishing for shad 
(it was the height of what we might style the 
Devonian age, and one hundred and five years before 
the introduction of black bass by an overland route*), 
after the Indian mode of taking that excellent fish.f 



* " Last night about one o'clock," we quote from the Bethlehem 
Daily Times of 13th June, a. c, "two tanks containing 400 black bass 
from the Potomac at Harper's Ferry arrived at the Freight Depot of the 

N. P. R. R. — a large number of beautiful fish dead." " Four 

hundred piscatorial corpses of piscatorial hopes entertained by the public- 
spirited gentlemen who had been active in setting on foot the black 
bass movement." Ibid. 

f " As soon as the shad [Scha-nva-nam-meek] i. e., the South-fish, com- 
pounded of Scha-'Tva-fie-u, south, hence Shawano, — and Na-mees fish, in 
their annual migration from the tropical seas, run up the rivers along the 
Atlantic coast to deposit their spawn, the Indians assemble for the 
fishery. Having built a dam across the stream with walls converging 
into a pound at its center, they twist a cable of grape-vines, loading it 
down with brush secured at intervals of from ten to fifteen feet. This 
barrier is stretched from shore to shore, perhaps a mile above the wier 
and being held in position by Indians in canoes, is towed down the 
river. The frightened fish are driven before it, and by men, stationed 
on the walls, into the pound, and there taken by hand. The Delawares 
called March, the '< shad-month." Memorials of the Moravian Church, 
'vol. 2. Shad were taken abundantly in this way, by the Moravians at 
Bethlehem, in the Lehigh below the Simpson Tract, until improvements 
were made in the bed of the river by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
Company, about 1820. The largest catch on record, — 6th May, 1772 — 
numbered 5,300. 



106 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

Now, the Governor was desirous of witnessing the 
catch. Hereupon Mr. Fuehrer fitted up his best 
batteau, and having taken his Honor on board from 
a spit on the Sand Island, rowed him within the 
magic circle described by the grape-vine cable, into 
the pound, below the wier, and, in short, to 
every available point of view (the Governor, we 
are told by Mr. Watson, was very near-sighted), 
much to his gratification. His lady and her attend- 
ants, meanwhile, watched the exciting sport from the 
heights of Nisky Hill. 

When Ephraim Culver retired from the Crown 
in April of 1771, Valentine Fuehrer was still at his 
post at the ferry. Mr. Culver in April of 1772 
became a resident of the charming hamlet of Schoe- 
neck on the Barony — there married widow Claus 
for his third wife — and died at Bethlehem In March 
of 1775. 

A division of the estates held by the Moravian 
Church in the Province of Pennsylvania completed 
about this time, led to a transfer of The Crown 
Inn and the adjacent lands to the Society at Beth- 
lehem. Hereupon that body let the hostelry (it 
was booked at 230/., the Ferry at 50/.) and a few 
acres of land contiguous, to Augustus H. Franke, 
a native of Eckersheim In Lower Lusatia (he had 
immigrated In 1754) at an annual rental of 30/. 
He took possession on the 6th of April, 177 1, 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 107 

and assisted by his wife, Mary Magdalene m. n. 
Steiner, managed both the house and tlie farm for 
his own emolument until the same day of April, 
1778. 

During this incumbency, although it fell in that 
memorable period in which her transatlantic colo- 
nies asserted, and then, by an appeal to arms, estab- 
lished their independence of Great Britain — no events 
of importance occurred at the Inn but what were 
intimately related with events which rightfully belong 
to the history of the town of Bethlehem. Passing 
these over, accordingly, as things known to even 
careless readers of Moravian history, it may be 
stated, in conclusion, that there were no more exci- 
ting days at the Crown, than the days of the week 
after the defeat of the Americans at Chadd's Ford 
(nth September, 1777), when soldiers, statesmen and 
civilians fled from before the British lion in Phila- 
delphia, past our house's royal emblem and across its 
ferry to Bethlehem; — a hegira, which we may suppose 
has no parallel in precipitancy save that of Mo- 
hammed, and none in the promiscuousness of its 
elements, excepting that of the first Bull Run. 
Valentine Fuehrer was ferryman at this critical junc- 
ture, — in fact, until the expiration of Franke's lease.* 

* We learn from 2 Penn'a Archives, p. 2S8, that John G. Jungman, 
who had been obliged by reason of a severe hypochondriac disorder to 
return to Bethlehem from the Indian mission, led by the advice of his 



108 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

He was also the thirteenth landlord at The Crown, 
if such continued to be the name of our Inn, at a 
time when popular feeling throughout the land had 
been enlisted in an indiscriminate crusade against 
the insignia of royalty. Of Mr. Fuehrer, we know 
the following. He was born July 17th, 1732, in 
upper Esopus on the confines of Kaatskill, where 
his father Christian Fuehrer was a deacon in the 
Reformed Church of the Palatine settlers. Becom- 
ing attatched to Moravian principles through Mora- 
vian missionaries, who, in the course of their 
spiritual labors among some Mohegans at Stissik, 
near Rhinebeck, occasionally visited the Germans lo- 
cated in that region of country, young Fuehrer on 
attaining his majority, accompained Martin Mack, 
to Bethlehem, the new home of his choice. This 
was in March of 1745. In August of 1755, he 
married Margaret Elizabeth, a daughter of George 
and Christiana Loesch of Tulpehocken, and having 
done much service for the Economy in the capacity 
of a farmer, on its dissolution, was appointed, as 
we have seen, ferryman at the Bethlehem Ferry. It 
was in the fifteenth year of his incumbency there. 



physicians, who thought bodily exercise very beneficial to him, " worked 
at the ferry for three years, during the time when the hospitals and 
other parts of the army were constantly passing and repassing the 
Lehigh." 



Tlie Crow IV Inn near Betlilehcin. 109 

and on the 6th of April, 1778, that he was called 
to take charge of The Crown, with a salary of 30/. 
per annum. Fuehrer was its responsible head until 
the ist of July, 1791, — for full thirteen years,* — in 
the first six of which he also superintended the man- 
agement of the ferry. When Sullivan had his head- 
quarters at Easton, at the time he was fitting out 
an expedition against the Indians of the Six Nations, 
Fuehrer's flat was impressed into the public service 
and taken to Easton, to assist in transporting troops 
and munitions of war across the Delaware. This was 
in June of 1779. Massa Warner, a son of Daniel 
and Bethiah Warner, — born in the town of Hebron, 



* During tills period the Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies at 
Bethlehem (after having been established in October of 1785), set out 
upon a career of usefulness In behalf of the amelioration of womankind, 
in which it has persevered, undaunted, for almost a full century. In this 
period, then, a new element began to appear in and to lend charms 
(year after year more decidedly) to the beautiful environs of Bethlehem, 
as well to the nether as to the upper shore of Lehigh, as during Fueh- 
rer's incumbency at The Crown, the Simpson Tract was for the first 
time trodden by the feet of denizens of the aforementioned venerable 
Institution. * * * * But this element, with the lapse of 
time, has grown mighty toward giving character to Bethlehem and its 
adjacents, — whether the maidens in double file and under the wholesome 
restraint of a quasi-military discipline, move demurely in dense squadrons 
through the precincts of the borough, — or whether, when without its 
limits, they break line, and following the bent of their happy natures 
roam light-heartedly and with graceful abandon through the sylvan 
remains of the historic scenes of which we write. 



110 Tlie Crown Inn near BetJilehem. 

Litchfield county, Connecticut, — was the next ferry- 
man in the succession, in the interval between ist 
of April, 1784, and the aforementioned ist of July, 
1 79 1. But his salary was 70/. per annum, and his 
perquisites were a home in the ferry-house, two cords 
of wood every season, and hay and pasture for a 
cow. 

Mr. Fuehrer, it has been stated, spent thirteen 
years of his life as landlord of The Crown. The 
events of interest which occurred at the old house, or 
which, occurring elsewhere during this period, never- 
theless affected its status, may be rehearsed briefly 
and in order as follows. In the early winter of 1780, 
the Lehigh was closed for seven weeks continuously, 
and as the ice permitted the transit of even heavily 
laden wains, there could not possibly be any receipts 
for ferriage for that time. Washington, accompa- 
nied by two aids (the General was on his way to 
headquarters at Newburg), passed the 25th day of 
July, 1782, at Bethlehem. According to the late 
Mr. Frederick Fuehrer's statement (he was the fifth 
son of Valentine and Margaret Fuehrer and having 
been born in the ferry-house in September, 1768, 
was in the fifteenth year of his age, when Washing- 
ton was at Bethlehem), the General passed .the night 
of the 24th of July, at his father's, and on retiring 
pleasantly sought to impress the people of the house 
with an idea of the heighth of his person by reaching 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. Ill 

his hand Into a ring suspended from a staple in the 
ceiling which was inaccessible by men of ordinary 
stature. 

On the 8th of November, 1782, a few weeks prior 
to the signing of provisional articles of peace at 
Paris, several companies of a Continental regiment 
en route from Lancaster to Wilmington, were quar- 
tered at The Crown. This was its last occupation 
by patriot troops, as hostilities between the bellige- 
rents ceased in the following January. But when 
a definitive treaty of peace was concluded at Brus- 
sels in September of 1783, the house and the tract 
on which it stood, together with divers other estates 
personal and real, passed completely under the juris- 
diction of the new Republic. 

John George Stoll, the ninth child of John J. and 
Ann. M. Stoll, of Balgheim, Principality of Oettin- 
ger (Mr. Stoll had immigrated in 1749), and Ro- 
sina, his wife, succeeded to the Crown, on the ist of 
July, 1791. This is the same John Stoll, who while 
saw-miller at Bethlehem (he spent twenty years of 
his life in that romantic little world near the outlet 
of the Menagassi, where since 1743, amid alders and 
willows, have been heard the hum of the waterfall 
and the sound of the busy saw) rendered professional 
services to the United States of America, to the 
amount of 9/., he having sawed three hundred feet 
of timber for the Continental Stable, located in No- 



112 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

vember of 1799^ on John Lerch's farm* in Allen 
township. From the mill, Mr. Stoll, by an easy- 
gradation, passed over the river to The Crown. He 
presided over its fortunes until the 30th of May, 
1792. Mr. Stoll died at Bethlehem, in March of 

iSoi.t 

George Schindler, from the village of Zauchten- 
thal, Moravia, linen-weaver (he had immigrated in 
the spring of 1754), and Mary Magdalene, third 
daughter of Conrad and Catharine Wetzel, of Gosh- 
enhoppen, his wife, were installed at the Crown on 
the last day of May 1792, and administered its 
affairs to the 31st of October, 1794. On that day 
the house closed its public career, " disappearing 
without glory," from the ranks of its fellow inns. 
The Ferry, however (Valentine Fuehrer had man- 
aged it since his retirement from the Crown), had 



*Lercirs farm of 150 acres situate on the Lehigh, had been conveyed 
to John Lerch in 1773 by Anthony Lerch, the elder, of Lower 
Saucon, it being a part of a tract of 1,800 acres of land in the forks 
of Hockendauqua, held by Wm. Allen in 1740 — conveyed to William 
Parsons in 1754, conveyed by Parsons to Richard Peters, and by Peters 
to Wm. Allen, and Joseph Turner, in the aforementioned year; one 
hundred and fifty acres of which great tract were sold in 1761, to John 
Stenton, by him to John Jennings, and by Jennings, in 1770, to 
Anthony Lerch. John Lerch, of Bethlehem, merchant, is a grandson of 
the aforementioned John Lerch. 

f Mr. Andrew G. Kern, of Nazareth, the venerable Moravian anti- 
quary, now in the 79th year of his age, is a grandson of John G. Stoll. 



Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 113 

been abandoned on the 27th of September, of the 
last mentioned year ; whereupon the veteran ferry- 
man received a gratuity of 10/. in consideration of 
his past services. 

In January of 1792, the Moravians first agitated 
the question of connecting the Simpson Tract with 
their town by means of a bridge. Having been em- 
powered to do so by an Act of Assembly, that was 
passed 3d April, 1792, under the hand and seal of 
Thomas Mifflin, the then Governor of the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania, said act providing for '' the 
establishing and building of a bridge across the 
Lehigh at Bethlehem," and empowering John 
Schropp of that place to build said bridge, — vesting, 
moreover, the same when built, in " him, his heirs 
and assigns forever" — work was commenced at the 
structure in the spring of 1794. Despite some 
delays occasioned by freshets in the river, the bridge* 



* This bridge was an uncovered one, and was built of lienilock 
timber, cut in what was then called " the little Spruce Swamp," between 
Panther Creek and the Nesquehoning, in Carbon county. It was con- 
structed at a cost of §7,800, which sum was divided among stock- 
holders, whom, Mr. Schropp, agreeably to the tenor of the act, had 
associated with himself; shares being issued at Si 00. In 1S16, this 
bridge being found imperfect, was removed, and its place taken by a 
more durable one (also uncovered), which rested upon four stone piers, 
furnished with ice-breakers. It was opened for travel iglh October, 1816. 
In April of 1827, the present "Bethlehem Bridge Company" was in- 
corporated by charter and organized. The bridge of 18 16 was carried 



11^ Tlie Ci'own Inn near Bethlehem. 

was opened for travel on the 19th day of September 
next ensuing, — whereupon, and since that time (save 
temporarily, as, for instance, in 18 16 and again in 
1 841), the historic Simpson Tract has been con- 
nected more closely and more effectually with Bethle- 
hem, than ever it was by stoutest shroud hawser of 
ninety fathoms. 

George Schindler, died at Bethlehem in March of 
1809. His widow survived him until April of 1825.* 
Thus passed away the last host and hostess of the 
X)ld Crown Inn. 

This narrative would be incomplete, were it to 
close here. The transformation of the Simpson Tract 
and of the lands adjacent, so that their condition 
became by insensible steps very different from that 
in which we found it in the days of Conrad Ruetschi, 
and very different from what it is remembered to 

away by the great freshet which swept the valley of the Lehigh, in January 
of 1 841. It was superseded in the same year by the present covered one, 
which, with the lapse of years, is very perceptibly growing old. 

*But how she spent her widowhood in a cottage on Market street, 
earning a livelihood by spinning and by boarding pupils of the Bethle- 
hem school J how, like other exemplary old ladies of whom we read in 
books, she had a rush bottomed chair, an eight-day clock and a tortoise- 
shell cat; how she became a favorite with the children of the town, by 
inviting them to "vespers," when she would always serve up " eizvas 
fr'isch gebackenes^'' and how in consequence she was called by the endear- 
ing appellation of Mammy, first by them, and then by every one, until 
the day of her death, the reader may learn in full, by consulting 
"Bethlehem and Bethlehem School," by C. B. Mortimer. 



The Crown Inn near Betlilelieni. 115 



have been but a quarter of a century ago, — and the 
fate of the old house whose name is borne on the 
title page of this tribute to its memory, must neces- 
sarily be traced, if even briefly. In order to do this, we 
must return to the year 1769, which was the seventh 
year after the dissolution of the Bethlehem Economy. 
In February, of that year, the Moravians laid out 
two farms on their lands lying south of the Lehigh 
river, and let them to tenants. The improvements 
on the upper Ysselstein place, served as a nucleus 
for the larger of the two, including, furthermore, 
the clearings that had been made about the Inn. 
This farm, first known in official records as "Die 
Plantage beym Gasthaus zur Krone," was occupied 
in 1769 by Conrad Ernst, from Wald Angelloch, 
in the Palatinate, and Ann C, daughter of Sebastian 
H. and Ann Catharine Knauss, of Emmaus, his 
wife.* The second farm, called " The Weygandt 
Farm" (its improvements gradually clustered around 
a clearing made by Cornelius Weygandtf on a 

* The old log dwelling, which in 1849, ^'^^ superseded by one of 
brick (the same that at present contains offices in the freight depart- 
ment of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Co.), was erected in 1765, and 
subsequently occupied by Ernst and the successive tenants of this farm. 

f Cornelius Weygandt, was born in March of 171 3, in Osthofen, in 
the Palatinate. He died in October of 1799, and lies buried in tiic 
grave-yard of the Schceneck Church, in Bushkill township. Sonic of his 
descendants reside in Easton. He doubtless built tlie ancient tarm-housc, 
which stands in the rear of Bishopthorpe, circa 1759. 



116 The Ci'oivn Inn near Bethlehem. 

tract of eighty acres of mountain land purchased by 
George Hartmann, 1744), was let to Marx Kieffer* 
in April of the aforementioned year 1769. Ernst 
was succeeded in April of 1779, by John Lucken- 
bach, last from Locust Grove, in Upper Saucon town- 
ship. John Luckenbachf was succeeded in April of 
1786 by his son, John Adam; he in 1810 by his 
son, John David, and he in 1845 by his son, 
Thomas David. Thus, because of its occupancy for 
many years by the members of that family, the farm 
came to be called " The Luckenbach Farm." 

Kieffer dying in 1791 (during his tenancy, 
there were some of Burgoyne's Brunswickers, then 
on parol, quartered at his house), was succeeded by 
John Christian Clevel,:|: he, about 18 10, by John 
Hoffert, and he in 1834 by his son, Samuel Hoffert. 
This farm was known during the last years of its 
tenure by the Moravians as " the Hoffert Farm."§ 
Subsequent to the Revolution (about 1786), the 



* Marx Kieffer was from Nielingen, in Durlach, and was blacksmith 
at the Shamokin mission when the Indian war broke out, in November 
of 1755. 

f John Luckenbach, the ancestor of the fomily of tliat name at Bethle- 
hem, died in June of 1810. John Adam died in April of 1842, and 
John David, in August of 1850. 

J John C. Clcvel, a son of George Clevel, was born in September of 
1754, in Plainfield township. He died near Bethlehem, in June of 1827. 

?John Hoffert died in October of 1837. Samuel Hoffert died in 
March of 1864. 




THE FUEHRER HOUSE (The Old Crown Inn), 1854. 

North Front— showing the room on the first floor in the northwest angle of the house, in which Washington 
passed the night of the 24th and 25th of July, 1782. After a sketch taken by R. A. Grider. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 119 

" Luckenbach Farm/' which at that time extended at 
points to the west of the Emmaus road, was divided, — 
and one hundred acres on its south side were made into 
a third farm — this being given in tenancy to Stoffel 
Wiener. Wiener was succeeded by Jacob Jacobi, in 
1805, and he, in 18 15 by his son, Jacob Jacobi, Jr. 
This farm was last known as " the Jacobi Farm."* 

Frederic Fuehrer commenced the fourth of the 
Moravian Farms situate on the south bank of the 
Lehigh, about 1794, and thereupon occupied the old 
Crown Inn. Thus the hostelry became a farm-house. 
In it Valentine Fuehrer spent the last years of his 
life. But in his old age the ferryman's vision grew 
dim until he became totally blind. Then like 
Oedipus, he was led about by children and children's 
children. He died on the 12th of January, 1808. 
Frederic Fuehrer, who had developed the new farm, 
until its cultivated fields extended westward to the 
borders of " The Hoffert Farm," died at Bethle- 
hem, on the 1st of March, 1849. But on the very 
day of his death, there was felled a white pine (It 
had well nigh been uprooted by a storm), which he 
when a young man, had planted in the garden hard 
by the old Crown, — saying as he set out the sapling, 
that he desired for It a prosperous growth, and wood 

* StofFel Wiener died circa 1845, in the neighborhood of Bethlehem, 
upwards of ninety years of age. Jacob Jacobi died circa 1S15; Jacob 
Jacobi, Jr., in 1S69. 



120 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 



from its trunk for a coffin, when he should come to 
die. — Joseph Fuehrer, a son of Frederick Fuehrer 
was the tenant on "The Fuehrer Farm," when in 
1847 it was sold by the Moravians. Now all these 
farms stretched into the Simpson Tract, and in the 
last year of their tenure by their original holders con- 
tained jointly full five hundred acres of arable land. 

Reckoning from the year in which the house of 
which we write ceased to be an Inn, we count forty 
years for the duration of what may, not inappropri- 
ately, be termed the bucolic age of the tract on 
which it stood ; — an age, in which a Sabbath calm 
brooded over the husbandman's acres and the fruits 
of the husbandman's toil, — when no sound invaded 
the universal stillness of that enchanted world by 
day, save the lowing of herds, or the ring of the 
mower's scythe, or the hum of honey-bees; and none 
by night, but the clink of hopples in the clover, or 
the distant watch-dog's bark echoed along the moun- 
tain. Then Heaven smiled and the seven planets 
shed sweet influence upon fallow and orchard, — upon 
seeded field and standing corn ; granting, moreover, 
rich increase to flocks and healthful progeny to men. 
No plague, then, of blight or mildew, of murrain or 
pestilence, as the moon spake kindly oracles and the 
mystic signs of the zodiac taught men how to avert 
dreaded disease. Thus passed the years and months 
of this bucolic age, — fallow-month, hay-month. 



TJie Croivu Inn near Bethlehem. 121 

autumn-month, winter-month and Christ-month, — 
each, in turn, pouring out treasures from its horn 
of plenty, until, it appeared as though Saturn pur- 
posed to return to the earth and take up his abode 
with the race of articulate men. 

Meanwhile, in the wilds of upper Northampton, 
where the Lehigh, yet an untamed mountain-stream, 
frets in its rocky bed, brave spirits were fighting the 
powers of Nature, — as men of old fought dragons — 
if, peradventure, they might wrest from her enchant- 
ments and share with their fellow-men, the treasures 
she fain would keep to herself in her savage soli- 
tudes. It needed brave spirits, indeed, to pioneer 
the way for that inexhaustible traffic which now 
pours a continuous stream of merchandise through 
its great artery in the valley of the Lehigh, to the 
emporiums of the western world. Such spirits were 
Cist, Miner, White, Hazard and Hauto, whose 
names are inscribed upon the title-page of the almost 
fabulous history of anthracite coal. Exchanging the 
amenities of civilized life, for the hardships and 
denials of life in the woods, these men toiled year 
after year in a howling wilderness (on the land and 
in the water), hewing roads through its sombre for- 
ests, clearing its river's channel of obstructions, hop- 
ing against hope and yet persevering, until they had 
accomplished what they designed should not be left 
undone. Thus they slew the dragon. 



122 The Cj'owiv Inn near Bethlehem. 

Now what these and their fellows eventually effected 
towards bringing anthracite to market, is as well 
known to the reader, as its recital would be irrele- 
vant to the subject of this narrative ; still, it is 
proper to state, that towards evening of the 3d of 
August, 1813, there swept down the Lehigh, pas', 
the Simpson Tract and the old Crown Inn, a craft 
such as had never before been borne upon its waters. 
This craft was an " ark " (the first of many that 
followed in its wake), laden with twenty-four tons 
of coal, on her way to Philadelphia, — a rude hulk 
of hemlock timbers, forsooth, carrying a mere hand- 
ful of fossil fuel, and yet prophetic of fleets of ar- 
gosies, which in time to come should sweep past 
the site of the olden hostelry, all freighted heavily 
with the spoils of a long-past carboniferous age. 

In 1820 "The Lehigh Coal Company" (formed 
in 1792) and the "Lehigh Navigation Company" 
(formed in 181 8) merged their interests into a new 
organization with the corporate title eventually of 
" The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company." 
This company found the river, whose name hence- 
forth became identified with its varied enterprises, 
well fitted up with locks and dams for flooding its 
channel in seasons of shoal water, by which means 
coal was as heretofore sent to market in arks, until 
the summer of 1829. It was then that navigation 
in the newly completed canal was opened. Within 



Tlie Crown Lni near Bethlehem. 123 



a twelvemonth thereafter, thirty thousand tons of 
anthracite from Bear Mountain, passed oyer this new 
highway southward into consumers' hands — Such 
was the dawn of a modern carboniferous age. 

Now all these operations in mining of coal and 
in behalf of its transportation down the valley of 
the Lehigh, begat a spirit of unrest which followed 
the courses of that river to its outlet. Men began 
to ponder a movement which was rapidly infu- 
sing the vigor of a new life into a hitherto unheeded 
region of country, and as they pondered and specu- 
lated, — there were some who in vision beheld coal 
wedded to iron, and the offspring of this union — gold. 
Hereupon the rod of witch-hazel in the diviner's hand 
was made to point out the subterranean abode of the 
king of metals. Thus iron was found; and then iron 
was smelted by the agency of anthracite in stacks 
with flaming throats. This triumph of metallurgy 
was first achieved at Catasauqua in the summer of 
1840. Seven years subsequent to that great event, 
the Moravians sold their farms. It grieved them, we 
ween, to see hereditary acres, which were long associa- 
ted in their minds with the days of the Bethlehem 
Economy and the patriarchal rule of Spangenberg, 
pass from their hands; but they hearkened to the 
words of far-sighted men who contended that it would 
be madnegs to attempt to rescue them from the high- 
tide which in that dayspring of modern improvement 



12^ The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

was setting in towards their borders, threatening to 
overwhelm in ruin all things that refused to bow 
before its irresistible progress. Hence they were sold, 
to wit: five hundred acres and upwards on the south 
side of the Lehigh alone, including the Simpson Tract, 
and the old building which in the days of the Penns 
and of loyalty to the House of Hanover, had been 
The Crown Inn. From the sale of these lands, date 
the beginnings of that change which has so steadily and 
so marvellously been transforming the south bank of 
the Lehigh, opposite the old Moravian settlement 
of Bethlehem, down to the present day. The first 
impetus was given it, perhaps, when in 1852, works 
for the manufacture of zinc were erected in the newly 
laid out town of Augusta, — which town, as it grew 
(and it grew rapidly on the completion of the Lehigh 
Valley and North Pennsylvania Railroads), changed 
its name frequently, being called sometime Wetherill, 
and sometime Bethlehem South — but eventually, the 
borough of South Bethlehem. How this vigorous 
town grew from year to year, ns it took within its 
borders new portions of the old Moravain farms, 
adding new peoples too, as often as new works for 
the production of zinc and iron and brass, were 
established ; — and how the railroads became effectual 
in bringing trade and traffic of all kinds, as well 
as coal and iron and gold, to its bustling market — 
need not here be rehearsed. All this is well known 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 125 

to the reader. He, too, may predict what eventually, 
in all probability, will be the extent and. character of 
the ambitious town that has supplanted the Moravian 
farms and the site of the old Crown Inn. With 
this we are not concerned ; but, instead, with the fate 
of the old ferry-house, which was demolished to make 
way for the track of the Lehigh Valley Railroad ; and 
with that of the old Crown Inn, which was removed 
from its lookout, in the summer of 1857 — it being 
proven that it stood in the very bed of the North 
Pennsylvania Railroad — whereupon it was sold for the 
paltry sum of thirty dollars — itself and all its his- 
torical reminiscences ; and having been given over 
gently to the axe and the saw, its well preserved 
remains were made to do service in houses of 
modern structure. 

Thus the old Crown Inn, in part, has entered 
upon a new career, in which it may make history 
for the delight of some future recorder or anti- 
quarian, if not, peradventure, for the edification of 
future readers of olden time lore. 




APPENDIX, 

CONTAINING DIVERSE MATTER SUPPLEI^IENTARY TO 
THE FOREGOING HISTORY. 



TREATING OF THE PLANTATIONS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF 
BETHLEHEM, PRIOR TO 1741. 

Three plantations, lying at intervals within a stretch of four miles 
on the south bank of the Lehigh, were the only indications of the 
white man's presence in their neighborhood, when the Moravians 
began to build Bethlehem. Two miles above them in a bend of the 
river was the "Jennings' Farm," a choice parcel of 200 acres which 
had been confirmed to Solomon Jennings (he was one of the " three 
walkers"), in the spring of 1736, by "William Allen, and which 
after being patented, " was holden of the Proprietaries as part of 
their Manor of Fermor or the Drylands in free and common soccage, 
on paying in lieu of all other services to them or their successors at 
the town of Easton, on the first day of March annually, one silver 
shilling for each one hundred acres." This farm, on being exposed 
at public sale after the demise of old Solomon (he deceased 16th 
February, 1757) by his executors, John Jennings, Nicholas Scull of 
the county of Berks, tavern-keeper, and Isaiah Jennings, was bought 
by Jacob Geisinger of Saucon township, yeoman, together with 164 
acres additional, for 1,500/. Pennsylvania currency, and confirmed 
to him by indenture bearing date of ist June, 1764. It is held 
by his descendants to the present day. 

Near the mouth of Saucon creek was the "Irish Farm," whoso 
history is given fully elsewhere. 

The third plantation was the "Ysseistein Farm," lying due east 
of the Simpson tract and stretching down the river four hundred and 
four perches to the west line of the "Irish Farm," — including two 



1B8 Tlie Ch^own Inn iveour Bethlehem. 



separate purchases, to wit: a tract of 178 acres and an island of 10 
acres (now held by the Bethlehem Iron Company), which had been 
surveyed to David Potts of the County of Bucks, yeoman, in July of 
1734, by him assigned to Isaac Ysselstein in December of 1738, to 
whom they were deeded by William Allen in December of 1740? for 
the consideration of 100/. Pennsylvania currency — and a second 
tract of 75 acres, due east of and adjoining the first, which was con- 
veyed to the aforesaid Ysselstein by Nathaniel Irish, in December of 
1739, for 26/. 5J-. Pennsylvania currency. This plantation was 
purchased by the Moravians of widow Ysselstein in 1749.* Of the 
original holder we know the following: 

Isaac Martens Ysselstein, was of Low Dutch parentage, and 
resided in Esopus in 1725, in which year he married Rachel Bogart. 
From Esopus he removed to the Dutch settlement of Claverack 
(Clover Field), on the east shore of Hudson's river, and thence to 
Marbletown, six miles west from Kingston on "the old Mine road." 
Allured by the prospect of cheap and fertile lands which were being 
thrown into the market by speculators in the Forks of the Delaware, 
even prior to the extinction of the Indian claim, he followed others 
of his countrymen into the new land of promise, and purchased, as 
we have seen, on the south bank of Lecha, building himself a cabin 
just over against the ford where Marshall and Yeates, the walkers, 
and their Indian companions Combash, Tom and Tuneam had 
ridden their horses through the stream, in the afternoon of the 
memorable 19th September, 1737. His family at that time consisted 
of four daughters, a negress, and a servant man. Jacobus van der 
Merck. But one night, it was in the spring of 1739, the treacherous 
river suddenly rose and overflowing its banks, swept away the cabin 
of the settler, and the timbers he was squaring for a more substantial 
homestead and for the housing of his cattle. So impetuous was the 
angry flood that the inmates of the doomed house barely escaped 
with their lives to higher ground. This is the first freshet in the 
Lehigh on record, it being the one which served as a standard of 
comparison for Moravian chroniclers of high water in that river, in 
the last century. 



* A triangle of 2 acres, in the extreme southeast corner of the Ysselstein land, was sold to 
William Lynn of Saucon, in 1828, and upwards of 107 acres adjacent, to John Riegel, better 
known as Hcrrnhiitcr yohn, in 1829, at the rate of J45 per acre. 



TJlc Croiuii Inn near Bethlehem. 120 

When Boehler and his company of Moravian refugees arrived in 
the Forks of Delaware from Georgia, in the spring of 1740, they 
experienced much kindness from the Hollander's family, all the 
members of which (excepting the father who deceased on the 26th 
of July, 1742) eventually united with the Moravians at Bethlehem. 

Isaac Ysselstein left six daughters, as follows : 

1. Jannetje, born in Esopus, married Philip Rudolph Haymer of 
Saucon, and after his decease, John Nicholas Schaeffer of Bethlehem. 
She died at Nazareth. 

2. Cornelia, born 25th January, 1731, in Claverack, Albany 
county, married Lewis Huebner of Bethlehem, potter, 4th October, 
i757> — died at that place 3d June, 1775. The late Abraham 
Huebner, M. D., was a grandson. 

3. Eleonora, born 21st June, 1733, in Marbletown, married 
Abraham Andress of Bethlehem, last from Frederic township, Phila- 
delphia county, wheelwright, 29th July, 1757, — died at Bethlehem, 
14th September, 1804. 

4. Beata, born in Marbletown, loth May, 1737, married Anthony 
Smith of Bethlehem, tinsmith, 14th October, 1766, — died at that 
place, 6th July, 18 14. 

5. Sarah, born in Saucon township, 27th January, 1740, — died at 
Bethlehem, 6 January, 1785. 

6. Rachel, born in Saucon township, 8th June, 1741, married 
Conrad Gerhardt of Philadelphia, in 1768, — died in that city, 31st 
May, 1 80 1. The late Dr. William W. Gerhardt of Philadelphia, 
"distinguished as an author and a practitioner in medical science," 
the late Benjamin Gerhardt and INIrs. Henry Du Pont were her 
grandchildren. 

Rachel, Isaac Ysselstein's widow, married Abraham Boeniper of 
Bethlehem, silversmith, in July of 1748. She died at that place, 
ist March, 1769. 

Isaac Ysselstein, it was stated above, died in the night of 26th 
July, 1742. His remains were interred on his farm next day, Peter 
Boehler, of Bethlehem, conducting the services at the grave. Twenty 
years ago a pile of gray stones in among the second growth of timber 
marked the spot. Since then, however, a busy town, with giant mills 
and shops has sprung up on the site of the Ysselstein Farm, oblitera- 
ting in its growth all landmarks of the olden times, — and so it has 



130 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

come to pass that no one knows precisely where tlie Hollander lies 3 
but it is said that day after day, and night after night, the ceaseless 
rolling of iron wheels shakes his mouldering bones and dust, as the 
ponderous trains sweep impetuously over the place of his sepulture. 



2. 



TREATING OF THE OLD GRAVE- YARD ON THE HILL, ON THE SOUTH SIDE 
OF THE LEHIGH, NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF SECOND AND OTTAWA 
STREETS. 

The following interments made in this place of burial, in the 
interval berween January of 1747 and October of 1763, are extracted 
from official records. 

1. Margaret, m. n. Lindemann, born near Worms in the Palati- 
nate, wife of Frederic Hartmann, died 12th January, 1747, at the 
Bethlehem Inn. 

2. Margaret, daughter of Peter and Ann Hoffmann of Macungy, 
died 2ist August, 1747. 

3. John Fahs of Saucon township, deceased 7th September, 1747. 

4. Adam, infant son of Peter and Ann Hoffmann of Macungy, 
died 26th October, 1747. 

5. Henry, alias Notematwemat (signifying in the Unami Delaware, 
<'one can't hold great mountains"), a Delaware Indian, born at 
''the time when corn Avas being hoed a second time " in 1731, in 
an Indian town in West Jersey, opposite Hunter's Settlement, now 
Lower Mount Bethel. Baptized at Bethlehem in January of 1 749, 
died 13th February, 1752. 

6. Henry, a Delaware, infant son of the above, died 24th 
February, 1752. 

7. Luke, a Delaware, deceased 14th January, 1757. 

8. Abraham, a Delaware, son of Jonathan and Verona of the 
Gnadenhutten Mission, died 2d July, 1757. 

9. William Tatamy, a son of Moses Tatamy (interpreter to 
David Brainerd during his residence in the Forks of Delaware), 
a Delaware, attached to the Presbyterian Church in Northampton 
County, — died 9th August, 1757, in the house of John Jones of 



The Crown Inn near Betlilehem. 131 

Bethlehem township, from the effects of a gunshot wound received 
at the hands of a white boy in the Craig Settlement, while on his 
Avay with Tadeuskundt's Indians from Fort Allen to Easton to a 
treaty. 

10. Johanna, a Delaware from Lechawachneck (Pittston), one of 
Tadeuskundt's company, died 9th August, 1757, immediately after 
baptism, administered on the Simpson Tract by Rev. Jacob Schmick. 

11. Lazara, a Delaware, died 3d September, 1757. 

12. Christiana, a Delaware, infant daughter of Nathaniel and 
Priscilla, deceased 28th November, 1757. 

13. A Delaware boy aged seven years, died 3d February, 1758. 

14. Justina, a Delaware, died 22d March, 1759. 

15. Froneck, a white boy, whose body was recovered from 

the river, he having eight days previous to his interment, while 
fording the Lehigh with his father, six miles above Bethlehem, 
fallen from their horse and drowned. Interred 2d June, 1760. 

16. Andrew Morrison, born in New England, but an inhabitant 
of Virginia, who after having lain ill at The Crown for four weeks, 
died 31st March, 1761. 

17. Capt. Jacob Wetherhold of the Province Service, commis- 
sioned a Lieutenant in Major Parson's town-guard, 20th December, 
1755. Mortally wounded in the affair at John Stenton's in Allen 
township, on the 8th October, 1763. Died at The Crown 9th 
October, 1763. 



TREATING OF INDIAN NAMES OCCURRENT IN THE FOREGOING HISTORY. 

Hockcndaitqita, corrupted from hack-i-wi-doch-wcn (compounded 
of hacki, land, un-doch-wcn, to come for some purpose) and 
signifying, searching for land. Mr. Heckewelder is of opinion 
that this word was used by the Delawares with allusion to the first 
advent of the whites to their settlement on the Hockendauqua, for 
the purpose of prospecting for or selecting lands along that creek. 

Lc - chau - iviech - ink, Le - chaii - wck - ink ox Le- chaii - wck - i (com- 
pounded of Lc-chau-wiech-cn, the fork of a road and ink, the local 



132 Tlie Crown Inn near Betldehcm. 



suffix) signifying at the J^lace of the forks of the road, where there is a 
fork of the road, was the name given by the Delawares to the so-called 
West Branch of their national river, because, says Heckewelder, at a 
point on its left bank below Bethlehem a number of trails forked off 
from the great highway of travel, by which they were wont to come 
northward from their seats in the lower portions of the Province. 
Le-chau-wek-i was shortened by the German settlers into Le-cha, a 
name in current use at the present day among descendants of the 
old Moravians at Bethlehem. 

Lc-chau-wa-quot, a sapling with a fork, Le-chau-han-ne , the fork 
of a stream, Lal-chau-uch-si-ta-ja, the forks of the toes, and Lal- 
chau-wu-Un-scha-ja, the forks of the fingers, are other words, all 
carrying in them the common idea of divergence or forking. 

The earliest recorded notices of this river date back to 1701. In 
that year the Proprietary and Governor informed his Council, "that 
a young Swede arriving from Lechay brought intelligence that some 
young men on going out to hunt at Lechay heard the frequent 
reports of fire-arms, which made them suspect that the Senecas 
Averc coming down among them." Again — ''the Governor censured 
a Marylander for endeavoring to settle a trade with the Indians on 
Lechay, despite a law prohibiting non-residents to trade with Indians 
in this Province." And, finally — "the Governor ordered Op-pe- 
me-ny-hook, the chief of the Indians on Lechay, to be sent for to 
consult with him about passing a law prohibiting all use of rum to 
the Indians of his nation.'' 

Macungy, corrupted from Machk-iin-tsclii signifying the feeding 
phjcc df bears. Machk, a heax-^—Mach-qui-ge-tt, plenty of bears. 
Mach-quik, there are plenty of bears. As early as 1735, we meet 
with this name written Macaunsie and Macqueunsie. 

Mauch Chunk, corrupted from Mach-ioach-tschmik (compounded 
of Machk, bear, wach-tschic mountain, and ijik the local suffix) 
signifying, where bear mountain is, or the phice of bear mountain. 

Minisink, corrupted from Min-sink (compounded of Minsi and 
ink the local suffix) signifying, at the place of the Minsis, where there 
are Minsis. 

Monacasy, corrupted from Me-na-gas-si or Me-na-kcs-si, signifying 
a stream with great bends, a crooked stream. Descendants of the old 
Moravians at Bethlehem, rightly shorten the word into Me-na-kes. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. ' 133 

The Delawarcs called the site of Bethlehem, Mc-na-gach-sink, i. e., 
at the place of the crooked stream. 

Saticon, corrupted from sak-unk (compounded o\ sa-ku-iuii, tlie 
mouth of a creek, and ////', the local suffix) and signifying at the 
place of the creek' s outlet, or, where the creek debouches. The most 
important of the various points in their country designated Saucoii 
by the Delawares, was the outlet of the Big Beaver. The abundance 
of Indian relics taken from the flats about Shimersville, warrants the 
conjecture that a populous Indian town had once occupied its site. 
When alluding to it, the Indians in accordance with the genius of 
their language, would simply say, sakunk, i. e., ''the town, at the 
place where the creek has its outlet. ' 

Shamokiii, corrupted from shach-a-mck-I/ik (compounded of 
shach-a-meek, an eel, and ink the local suffix) and signifying, at the 
place of eels. 

Susquehajina, written in early times sasquehanna, corrupted from 
Que-ni-schach-ach-gek-han-ne (compounded of quin, long, shach-ach- 
ki, straight, and han-ne, stream), the name by which the Delawares 
originally designated the reach of the West Branch westward from 
the Muncy creek (in this reach stood the Delaware town of Queni- 
schachachki, perhaps, on the site of Linden) — then the West 
Branch, and finally the main stream of the great river. The Five 
Nation Indians, however, called the West Branch and its valley, 
Otzinachson, i. e., the Demon'' s Den, from a cave in the mountains 
on its right shore just above Shamokin. Otzinachson is corrupted 
variously, in old records thus, Zinachson, Quimachson, Oxenaxa 
and Chenasky. 

Tioga, corrupted from Ti-a-o-ga, an Iroquois word, signifying a 
gate, ox place of entrance, the name given by the Six Nation Indians 
to the i\eck of land in the forks of the Tioga and the North Branch, 
which, at one time, was the only authorized point of entrance into 
their country for the traveller coming northward from the country 
of the Delawares. 

Tulpehocken, corrupted from Tul-pe-iui-hack-i (compounded of 
tul-pe, a turtle, and hack-i land) signifying the land of turtles. This 
was the Delaware name of the valley of the Tulpehocken, as well as 
of an old Indian town, said to have occupied the site of Womelsdorf 
in Berks county. 



134- Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 



TREATING OF THE FIRST BRIDGE OVER THE LEHIGH AT BETHLEHEM, 
AND OF "THE BIG SPRING." 

The following **Song of the Bridge," was written by the Rev. 
Jacob Van Vleck, the second Principal of the Young Ladies 
Seminary at Bethlehem, for the amusement of his son the late 
Rt. Rev. William Henry Van Vleck, then (1794) in the fourth year 
of his age. But while the fond parent has playfully put words of 
childish wonderment into the mouth of the little boy, he has also 
made him speak history, which may warrant the insertion here in its 
entirety of 

DAS BRUECKENLIED. 



Wcnn ich mir den Bnieckcnbau 
In dcm Lecha Strom beschau, 
O ! so denk ich— das ist schcen. 
Bald kann man hinuebcr gehn. 
Doch ich wag cs eher nicht 
Bis ich weiss dass sie nicht bricht. 



Stark seh'n zwar die Balkan aus 
Fuer so eine kleine Maus, 
Doch nach meincr Hascnart, 
Die sich manchmal offenbar't 
Moecht ich doch ziivoerdcrst sch'ii 
Eincn Wagcn drueber gchn. 



Dann lauf ich getrost drauf hin, 
Zu der Mammy Schindlerin, 
Wenn sie nehmhch drucben bleibt, 
Und noch lacngcr Wirthschaft treibt. 
Sie ist doch schon alt und schwach, 
Licbt ihr eignes Dach und Fach. 



Nun, dem sey nun wie ihm will, 
Henry freut sich in der Still', 
Dass er als ein alter Mann 
Einmal kuenftig sagen kann, 
Dass in seinem vierten Jahr 
Dicse Brueck' gebauet war. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 135 



Des Baumeister's Nam' war Trucks- 

Da die Lecha stark anwuchs 

Bald im Anfang, und's Gcruest 

Weggeworfen worden ist. 

Hat er's dauerhaft gemacht, 

Und das Werk zu Stand' gcbracht. 

Sein Mitmeister's Nam' hiess Hunt, 
Der sein Bus' ness gut verstund — 
Woodring half auch fleissig dran, 
Und noch mancher starker Mann ; 
Henry sah derweil in Ruh 
Oft dem Bau der Bruccke zu. 

Nun wcnn starkc Wasscrfluth 
Dicser Brucck' nicht Schaden thut, 
Und wcnn starker Eisgang nicht 
Krachend sie in Stuecke bricht — 
O ! so hat's nicht ieicht Gefahr 
Diese Brucck' steht hundert Jahr I 



The construction of the Lehigh Valley Railroad on the Simpson 
Tract, involved, among the rest, the ruin of what forty years ago was 
a favorite resort on the banks of the Lehigh for coffee and tea 
parties, its central point being a never-failing spring well guarded 
by masonry, and accessible by a flight of stone steps which led you 
down to the cool recesses of the grateful pool. The high bank at 
this point (half way between the site of the Ferry and the Island) 
had been cut away so as to allow of placing tables and benches. 
These improvements were made about 1812, when patriotism at 
Bethlehem ran high and demanded room for public demonstration ; 
and the little amphitheatre being overarched by forest trees, was a 
charming spot on a summer's afternoon or evening. It was 
customary for the young men of Bethlehem on every Whit-Monday, 
early in the morning, to join together in repairing the precincts of 
this common resort, on the opening of the season of the year in 
which it would again be sought by the families of the town. Its 
grounds included the hillside from the bridge to the Island. These 
were threaded by numerous pathways that lead you through laurels 
and under noble old trees, over by far the most romantic stretch of 
sylvan wilderness along the Lehigh at Bethlehem. The ' ' Big Spring' ' 
is noted down on Renter's draft of 1757, about forty rods due 
north from the grave-yard on the Simpson Tract. 



136 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 



TREATING OF THE DISMEMBERMENT OF THE OLD MORAVIAN FARMS 
LYING ON THE SOUTH BANK OF THE LEHIGH IN GENERAL, AND 
OF THAT OF THE SIMPSON TRACT IN PARTICULAR. 

When, in the early winter of 1844, the Moravians, relinquishing 
their hereditary policy which was one of extreme exclusiveness, 
began to dispose of real estate in Bethlehem in fee, an important 
step was taken toward inviting settlement and enterprise to that 
town and its vicinity. 

In 1847 Chas. A. Luckenbach of Bethlehem purchased of the 
Moravian Society its four farms lying south of the Lehigh river 
within Lower Saucon and Salisbury townships, to wit: "The 
Hoffert Farm," "The Fuehrer Farm," "The Jacobi Farm," and 
" The Luckenbach Farm." They were conveyed to him by Philip 
H. Goepp, agent, by indentures bearing date of ist April 1848, 
and sold at the rate of $75 per acre. This great sale included 
almost the entire Simpson Tract, the upper Ysselstein tract, and 
portions of the Hartman, the Vollert, the Schaus, the Boerstler 
and the Penn tracts, lying west and south of the first two mentioned, 
and contained 519 acres and 129 perches, — excepting a few acres, all 
under cultivation. 

Prior to this sale, however, — viz.: in April of 1S45, ^ ^^^*^ ^^''^ 
151 perches of the Simpson Tract, adjoining the Philadelphia stage- 
road on the west near the covered bridge (on it stood the old 
ferry-house), had been sold to Daniel Desh of Saucon township. 
This was the first blow aimed at its integrity. Furthermore, in 
April of 1846, 2 acres and 10 perches of mountain land, cut by 
the west line of the historic tract, were sold to Francis H. Oppelt 
of Bethlehem, whose "Lehigh Mountain Springs Water Cure," 
was then in course of erection; — and about the same time, Daniel 
Desh purchased three-quarters of an acre (the so-called "Walter 
Lot " * ) situate on the Allentown road, a few rods southwest from 
the site of the old ferry. 



* The log-house standing next to the Anthracite Building, as you pass up Leliigh street, was 
built abuut iSu7, and w.is otcuiiicU by Joseph Till. Mr. Till was a shoemaker, and there are 



Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 137 



By indentures bearing date of ist April 1S48, Chas. A. Lucken- 
bach conveyed to Chas. C. Tombler of Bethlehem, 107 acres and 
6 perches, to L. Oliver Tombler, of the same place, 32 acres and 21 
perches, and to Francis H. Oppelt, 6 acres and 105 perches (land 
all lying west of the Emmaus road), at from $70 to $80 per acre — 
thus disjwsing of the Hoffert Farm in its entirety. Seventy acres 
more or less of this farm were Simpson land. 

Again, by indenture bearing date of the aforementioned day of 
April, Chas. A. Luckenbach conveyed to Daniel Desh the Fuehrer 
Farm in its entirety (it contained 98 acres and 158 perches) at the 
rate of ^95 per acre. Seventy-five acres more or less of this farm 
were Simpson land. 

Finally, by indenture bearing date of ist April 1848, Chas. A. 
Luckenbach conveyed to Joseph Hess of Lower Saucon, the Jacobi 
Farm (it contained 103 acres and 83 perches) in its entirety, at the 
rate of $80 per acre. Seventy acres, more or less of this farm, were 
Simpson land. Its ancient house and barns stand to the present 
day at the corner of Brodhead avenue and Fourth street in the 
borough of South Bethlehem, the only memorials remaining to 
indicate that agricultural pursuits had occupied the attention of 
some former dwellers on the site of that busy town. 

The fourth and largest of these farms (it contained 160 acres 
more or less, 30 of which were Simpson land) was retained by the 
purchaser for several years, being farmed by tenants or leased. In 
1849 ^^i"- Luckenbach supplanted the old farm-house by a brick 
dwelling, the same, which at present contains the office of C. C. 
Tombler, station agent, and offices in the freight department of the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. 

To return to the Hoffert Farm. By indenture bearing date of 
7th August 1850, L. Oliver Tombler conveyed to Daniel C. Freytag 
of Bethlehem, 22 acres and 21 perches of his portion of the old 
farm, and in April of 185 1, the remaining 10 acres to Augustus 
Fiot, of Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Mr. Fiot had purchased of 
Chas, C. Tombler, the 107 acres described above, the conveyance 

old residents of Bethlehem, who relate that it was incumbent upon him, when they were boys, 
to repair the foot-gear of the rising generation, and that hence he was wont to inveigh impetu- 
ously against their pastime of hunting rabbits in the wild adjaccnts of the Hoffert Farm, 
denouncing the sport as destructive of shoe leather, and, as crowding his bench inconveniently 
with work. 

18 



138 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

being made by indenture dated 2d December 1850. Two years 
prior to this sale however Mr. Tombler had erected a stone 
dwelling, a few rods south from the old farm-house, which dwelling 
Mr. Fiot subsequently enlarged. The latter also added 29 acres and 
49 perches of woodland (a portion of the Vollert tract) to his estate, 
improved and beautified the farm and grounds, and named his seat 
Fontainebleau (now Bishopthorpe). Mr. Freyteg, in April of 
1856, sold his place (he had erected a dwelling on the premises in 
1 85 1, at present the residence of Tinsley Jeter) to Mrs. Malvina F. 
Wheeler of Mauch Chunk. She, in November of i860, conveyed 
the property to Tinsley Jeter, formerly of Amelia County, Virginia, 
but late of Philadelphia. Augustus Fiot died in April of 1866, 
devising his estate to Julius Fiot, who, by indenture bearing date 
the 23d July, 1869, conveyed to Tinsley Jeter what lands he had 
become possessed of at Bethlehem, in their entirety. Thus, 
excepting a few acres, the old Hoffert Farm, passed into the hands 
of Mr. Jeter. On his entering into possession of the Fiot estate 
(this was in 1866) he continued the town-plot that had been pro- 
jected on the Fuehrer Farm by Messrs. Hacker and Shipley, thereby 
throwing into the market, sites for suburban residences, which over- 
look one of the most charming landscapes in the Lehigh Valley. 
The day is not far distant, when all vestiges of the old Moravian 
mountain-farm will have disappeared, and its place be occupied by 
a beautiful town.* 

To return to the Fuehrer Farm. By indenture bearing date of 
20th May 1854, Daniel Desh conveyed to Rudolphus Kent of 
Philadelphia this farm in its entirety and his prior purchase of 
Simpson land, together amounting to loi acres and 109 perches at 
$200 per acre. Mr. Kent, hereupon, sold a parcel of 10 acres of 
the above (and with it the old Crown Inn), to the North Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad Company, at the rate of ^1,000 per acre, — and 
extended the town-plot of Wetherill (which had been projected on 
the Luckenbach Farm) westward of the Philadelphia stage-road to 
the extreme limits of the Fuehrer Farm. Lots in this extension 



* In selecting names lor the streets in his extreme westerly extension of South Bethlehem, 
Mr. Jeter has among others very appropriately adopted those of the tenants of the old farm 
and of the first settlers on adjacent tracts, to wit: Wcygand, Kieffer, Clcwell, Hoflert, Tombler 
and Ostrom. 



Ute Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 130 

(subsequently, after having been entirely changed as to its streets by 
Messrs. Hacker and Shipley,* called Fountain Hill, .Golden Hill or 
Episcopal Hill, according as men followed the bent of their humor), 
offering eligible sites for building, found ready purchasers. Robt. 
H. Sayre, the Superintendent and Engineer of the Lehigh Valley 
Railroad, built his residence (it was the first on the hill) in 1857 and 
58 — Wm. H. Sayre, Jr., built in 1862 — John Smylie, Jr., in 1863 
— Elisha P. Wilbur in 1863 and 64— Dr. F. A. Martin in 1864— H. 
S. Goodwin in 1867, and Dr. G. B. Linderman in 1870. This 
was the beginning of the town of suburban residences which crowns 
the high land of the old Fuehrer Farm. 

In the summer of 1852, Mr. Luckenbach projected a town-plot 
in the very heart of his farm, its west end invading the Simpson 
Tract. It was named Augusta, and was the origin of the present 
borough of South Bethlehem. Levin C. Peisert of Bethlehem took 
up the first building lot, in the new town, — a lot immediately east 
of the New Street Bridge, fronting 40 feet on the track of the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad, and running south 176 feet to an alley. 
It was deeded to him in the following year, — the consideration 
money being $200. Borhek and Knauss commenced work on 
three double frame dwellings, situate on Augusta street, on the 31st 
October, 1853. These were the first residences erected in the town. 
Having disposed of sundry parcels of the old farm to diverse 
purchasers — to wit : a plot of four acres to the Pennsylvania and 
Lehigh Zinc Company, the same quantity to Samuel Wetherill, 
town-lots to Borhek and Knauss, Wm. Th. Roepper and Michael 
Gorman, — and 35 acres in several pieces to Asa Packer, of Mauch 
Chunk, for the use of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, Mr. Lucken- 
bach, by indenture bearing date of 24th of May, 1854, conveyed the 
remainder of the old farm, viz. : 97 acres and 141 perches, to Chas. 
W. Ranch and Ambrose H. Ranch of Bethlehem. 

In the summer of 1854, Charles Brodhead of Bethlehem, who 
held the Jacobi Farm of 103 acres and 83 perches by agreement 
with Joseph Hess, and the above described remainder of the Luc- 
kenbach Farm by agreement with the Messrs. Ranch, enlarged the 



* Messrs. Hacker and Shipley adopted besides Lehigh, the names of Lcnnape, Third, Huron, 
Dacotah, Seminole, Pawnee, Cherokee, Ottawa, Seneca, Chippewa, Delaware and Uncas in 
designating the streets and avenues of their town. 



1^0 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

plan of Augusta, and changed its name into Wetherill, in honor of 
the late John Price Wetherill, of Philadelphia, manufacturer. The 
Secretary of War, at this time, recommending the erection of 
National Foundries at different points in the country, a strong 
effort Avas made by the late the Honorable Richard Brodhead, to 
have one located in the town of Wetherill. But Government 
failed to act upon the Secretary's recommendation. 

By indenture, bearing date of 31st March, 1855, Joseph Hess, 
conveyed to Charles Brodhead, the Jacobi Farm at the rate of <s2oo 
per acre. Excepting a parcel of seven acres donated by Mr. Brod- 
head to the Lehigh University, this farm has been cut up into lots 
and incorporated with the present borough of South Bethlehem. 
Allusion has been made to the old farm-house and barns, that 
survive its wreck. 

In April of 1855, the remainder of the Luckenbach Farm (to 
wit: 97 acres and 141 perches) reverting to Chas. W. Ranch and 
Ambrose H. Ranch, these disposed of sundry parcels of the same as 
follows : to Thomas Andrews of New York, 8 acres (the site of the 
mammoth rolling-mill in course of erection at this writing), to the 
North Pennsylvania Railroad Company about 4 acres along the 
dividing line of the Luckenbach and Jacobi Farms, and to the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company a strip lying north of and con- 
tiguous to Andrews' lots. At the same time Charles W. Ranch 
retained 2 acres of the tract, situate in the extreme southwest corner 
of the farm. Hereupon, by indenture bearing date of ist April 
1858, the Messrs. Rauch conveyed to A. Wolle & Co. of Bethlehem, 
the remainder of their original purchase, viz. ; 81 acres at the rate 
of $250 per acre. A portion of these were subsequently sold to the 
Bethlehem Rolling Mills and Iron Company, the remainder 
continuing a part of the town of Wetherill, or Bethlehem South, as 
the place was called in the interval between 1858 and 1865. 

Thus the old Moravian farms were gradually dismembered, and 
the scenes of agricultural pursuits in the olden time, were trans- 
formed into scenes of modern enterprise, on which capital and 
labor are active in achieving marvellous triumphs in various depart- 
ments of human industry. 

Finally, it may interest some reader to know, that according to a 
"Map of the Bethlehem Tract showing the landsales from 1771 to 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 7^2 



1854," drawn by Wm. Th. Roepper, the Simpson tract was divided 
among and held by the following persons, in the last mentioned 
year, viz. : Daniel Desh, Joseph Hess, Daniel C. Freytag, Augustus 
Fiot, Asa Packer, E. A. Richardson, Francis H. Oppelt, C. A. 
lAickenbach, C. F. Hellner, the Moravian Society at Bethlehem, 
and lot-holders in the town of Augusta. 



6. 

TREATING BRIEFLY OF THE BOROUGH OF SOUTH BETHLEHEM, OF ITS 
MILLS, SHOPS, CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, BRIDGES, PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS, 
AND WHAT ELSE BEARS UPON THE GROWTH OF THE TOWN, WHICH 
HAS SUPPLANTED THE OLD ISIORAVIAN FARMS.* 

7V7E BETHLEHEM BRIDGE COMPANY'S BRIDGE, 

near the site of the old Ferry, was built in 1841 at a cost of $7,258, 
and was opened for travel, 20th September of that year. This 
bridge is 23 feet above low-water mark, and its floor is 400 feet long 
by actual measurement. It is the third bridge built within 47 
years on the same site. 

THE LEHIGH MOUNTAIN SPRINGS WATER CURE, 

established in 1846 by Dr. F. H. Oppelt. This charming sylvan 
retreat touches the west line of the Simpson Tract. In June of 
1 87 1 it passed into the hands of James T. Borhek of Bethlehem, by 
whom it was recently conveyed to Tinsley Jeter. 

THE LEHIGH ZINC COMPANY. 

Forty years ago, a barren outcrop of some unknown mineral sub- 
stance on his farm in Upper Saucon township, Lehigh county, 
arrested the attention of the late Jacob Ueberroth and his neighbors, 
and, after having excited their inquiring curiosity (they took a 
wagon-load of the ore to the Mary Ann Furnace, in Berks county, 
where a vain attempt was made to smelt it in the cupola) was 

* The writer desires thus to acknowledge his indebtedness to numerous genllemen of South 
Bethlehem for valuab'e aid rendered him in preparing this section of the Appendix. 



IJj.'^ The Cj'own Inn near Bethlehem. 

unheeded, and likely to be forgotten. But "the trained and 
observant eye of a studious man, who, with satchel and hammer was 
by chance passing that way on a leisure Saturday's stroll of explora- 
tion in 1845, determined the unknown mineral to be calamine, the 
hydro-silicate of zinc."* Mr. Wm. Th. Roepper's discovery led 
to a development of that almost inexhaustible deposit of rich ores of 
zinc, — of calamine, Smithsonite and blende, by which the extensive 
works of the company, whose origin is here briefly reviewed, have 
been supplied for almost twenty years. 

The organization effected "for the purpose of mining zinc ore in 
the counties of Lehigh and Northampton, — of manufacturing zinc 
paint, metallic zinc and other articles from said ore, and of vending 
the same," was incorporated by an act of Legislature, May 2d, 
1855, under the name of "The Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc 
Company," with a capital of $1,000,000, divided into shares of $5 
each. The originators of this company were residents of New 
York, and its first president was Thomas Andrews of that city. 

Prior to their incorporation, however, in the spring of 1853, 
works for the production of zinc oxide in furnaces and by a process 
of his own invention, were begun to be constructed by Mr. Samuel 
Wetherill, who had been engaged to superintend the enterprise in 
its various departments. The site of the company's works was pur- 
chased of C. A. Luckenbach, it being included within the original 
town-plot of Augusta, on the old "Luckenbach Farm." They were 
completed on the 12th of October of the above-mentioned year, 
with a capacity of 2,000 tonsjier annum, at a cost of $85,000 — and, 
next day, the first zinc-white made in the United States, was pro- 



* We quote from the genial address delivered by Benjamin C.Webster, the President of the 
Lehigh Zinc Company, on the occasion of starting the giant engine at the company's mines in 
Fridensville, on the 19th of January last. This is the engine which is destined to become famous 
as is the house that Jack built; this is the engine whose cylinder is no inches in diameter, whose 
piston rod is 10 inches in diameter with a ten-foot stroke, — this is the engine that can wcrk " com- 
fortably," as wc are told, at 12 strokes per minute, and yet is not in the least " fussy ;" the engine, 
each of whose four walking-beams weighs 48,000 lbs., — twenty-six of who.se pieces weigh each 
upwards of 7 tons, and whose entire weight, including girders, is 1,313,300 lbs. ; — the engine that 
can lift 52,800,000 lbs., or 26,400 tons, one foot high in one minute of time with the majestic ease 
and consciousness of power with which an elephant lifts a straw; the engine that can raise 12,000 
g.allons of water per minute from a depth of 300 feet — which works day and night without rest ; 
and whose influence is a mighty one towards transforming the subterranean haimts of Kobalt and 
gnome, wliere, from times Silurian these spirits have sported undisturbed in the ice-cold sea that 
noiselessly washes the shores of their crystal kingdom. 



TliG Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 143 



duced from calamine by the " furnace process" and " tower process" 
of Wetherill, in combination Avith the "bag process of collecting," 
of Richard Jones. Samuel Wetherill and Charles T. Gilbert con- 
ducted the company's works for four years, from October, 1853, to 
September, 1857, and in that time delivered 4,725 tons of zinc-white. 
The present capacity of the oxide works, which are supervised by 
James McMahon, is 3,000 tons per year. It should here be stated, 
that in the interval between 1854 and 1859, Mr. Wetherill experi- 
mented on the production of metallic zinc or spelter, at works 
erected by him on a four-acre lot adjoining that of the Pennsylvania 
and Lehigh Company — the upper end of said lot lying within the 
limits of the historic Simpson Tract. Here the inventor succeeded, 
after many expensive failures and disappointments, in producing 
spelter — not, however, at a cost such as to characterize his method 
as an economically practicable one. Hence it was abandoned. 

Joseph Wharton managed the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc 
Company's works between September of 1857, and September of 
i860. In this interval its corporate title was changed by an act of 
Legislature, dated i6th February, i860, into that of "The Lehigh 
Zinc Company," by which it continues to be known. In 1859 Mr. 
Wharton contracted with the company for the erection of spelter 
works, and for the manufacture of the metal. The works were 
constructed by Louis De Gee, a member of the firm of De Gee, 
Gernant & Co., of Ougree, Province of Liege, Belgium, who had 
been expressly imported to superintend the inception of the enter- 
prise. This led to the importation of Belgian labor, and to the 
consequent introduction of a new element into the population of 
IJethlehem South. Andre Woot Detrixhe, Francois Lemall, and Jean 
Henrard, experts from the spelter and oxide works of Messrs. De 
Gee, Gernant & Co., arrived in June of 1859, and engaged success- 
fully in the production of metallic zinc, the first of which was cast 
in July of that year. M. Detrixhe since that time has superintended 
this department of the company's works, including the pottery for 
the manufacture of retorts. There were four subsequent importa- 
tions of Belgians; — in i860, one of fifteen; in 1861, one of nine; 
in 1863, one of six; and in 1864, one of twenty-seven. These 
operatives are principally from Ougree, and from Ongleur, Vielle 
Montague ; some, however, from St. Leonard, Vielle Montague, na- 



1^^ The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

tive of the Provinces of Liege, Luxembourg and Namour, Belgium.* 
They have laid aside the blue blouse and their women have exchanged 
the sabot for the American shoe ; but both, by clinging to the mother 
tongue, are maintaining their distinctiveness as a people in the mar- 
vellous little town of many nations, for homes in which they ex- 
changed the land of their birth. 

The capacity of the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Company's spelter 
works, at present, is 3,600 tons per year. 

In 1864 and 1S65 a mill for rolling sheet-zinc was constructed 
under the superintendence of Alexander Trippel, who had been sent 
abroad to acquaint himself with the most desirable mode of pro- 
ducing this important commodity. The first sheet-zinc was rolled in 
April of 1865. The present capacity of the mill is 3,000 casks, or 
1,680 tons, per year. 

James Jenkins succeeded Joseph Wharton in the management of 
this novel branch of American industry, which although, compara- 
tively speaking, in its infancy, already supplies one-half of the home 
consumption of zinc in its various forms. 

Benjamin C. Webster, the fifth President of the Lehigh Zinc 
Company, has been acting manager of its works since September 
of 1863. 

The annual yield of the zinc mines, which are situate in Saucon 
Valley, three miles and a half south by west from Bethlehem, is 
estimated to be 17,000 tons of ore, requiring 40,000 tons of an- 
thracite for their reduction. Upwards of 600 operatives are em- 
ployed in the various departments of the Lehigh Zinc Company's 
enterprise. 

* The following is an enumeration of the Belgian metallurgists Imported by the Pennsylvania 
and Lehigh Zinc Company : In June of 1S59, Andre Woot Detrixhe, Francois Lemall, and Jean 
Hcnrard. In January of i860, Louis Degce, Charles Barthelemy, and Ferdinand Niset. In 
July of i860, Ferdinand Woot Detrixhe, Nicolas Woot Detrixhe, Philippe Vooz, Augustin Vooz, 
Jacques Lemall, Desire Poupicr, Hubert Dubois, Isidore Wilmotte, Gilles Franket, Servais 
Evrard, Jean Evrard, and Francois Evrard. In May of 1861, Antoine Dessurny, Jean Bodson, 
Loius Mordent, Laurent De Couny, Antoine Gerard, Theodore Gcoris, Servais Ranson, Joseph 
Cambresy, and Guillaumc Giltai. In May of 1863, Henri Vooz, Dieudonne Nelis, Jacques 
Tribolet, Pierre Waltery, Dirick Bcnoit, and Louis Gerard. In September of 1864, Scbaslien 
Delfosse, Lambert Jacob, Emilc Radard, Michel Massart, Piron Massart, Henri Missotcn, 
Francois Vandevcrt, Arnold Classen, Jean Bawdin, Lambert Schouben, Antoine Ledoux, 
Francois Lalloux, Nicolas Labaloue, Lambert Barbier, Henri Philippet, Joseph Dedoyard, 
Guillaumc Dedoyard, Joseph Beau Jean, Gustave Lignoul, Jules Vandermassen, Ferdinand 
Vandermassen, Frederick Vandermassen, Hippolite Vandermassen, Nicolas Dome, Jean Frauk- 
son, Henri Chatherlain, and Joseph Legraire. 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. IJfS 



THE LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD. 

The company which controls this now great highway of travel and 
traffic was organized originally under the name of "The Delaware, 
Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company," by an 
act of Assembly dated 21st April, 1846. A supplement to said act, 
under date of 7th January, 1853, changed the title of the corpora- 
tion to the one by which it is at present known. The original main 
line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad (following the courses of the 
river whose name it bears for a distance of 46 miles from Mauch 
Chunk to Easton), was located in 1852, and constructed between 
27th November of that year and the 24th September, 1855. On the 
last mentioned day it was delivered complete to the company by 
Asa Packer, who had the contract for the work, and was accepted. 
Prior to that date, however, viz., on the nth of June, 1855, the 
road was opened for the transportation of passengers from South 
Easton to Allentown, two trains running daily to the latter place 
until the 12th of September ensuing; then it was opened to Mauch 
Chunck, with one train a day until the ist of October. But the 
first locomotive engine that was ever driven over the Simpson 
Tract was the General Wall, which came up by this road to the 
new town of Wetherill, on the evening of the 4th of June, 1855. 

The brick dwelling erected on the Luckenbach Farm in 1849, 
served for the first station-house at Bethlehem for the Lehigh Valley 
Railroad. This was superseded in 1859 by a station-house (used in 
common with the North Pennsylvania Railroad), built at the inter- 
section of the two roads, near the site of the old ferry-house. This 
landmark, as has been stated elsewhere, was demolished, when the 
bed of the road was levelled, as it lay in its very track. 

The present commodious station-house, built at the joint expense 
of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the North Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, in 1867 (it cost upwards of $23,000), called the Union 
Depot, — furnished with public rooms for the use of both roads 
and with separate offices for each, was occupied on the i8th 
of November, 1867. With its spacious platforms it covers the 
site of the old Crown Lm and that of its yard and garden. The 
historic hostelry stood near the south-east angle of the southern 
platform ; and scarcely a rod beyond, is pointed out the track Avhich 



1^6 The Crown Inn near Bcblileliem. 

passes over the well, at which its successive landlords drew the water 
which the thirsty traveller needed for qualifying his chosen beverage. 

In 1864 and in 1870 additions were built to the aforementioned 
dwelling on the Luckenbach Farm, in which, among others, are the 
offices of Robert H. Sayre, General Superintendent and Chief Engi- 
neer of the Road ; of William H. Sayre, Jr., the President's assistant ; 
of H. Stanley Goodwin, Assistant General Superintendent ; of H. S. 
Kitchell, Chief Clerk ; of Calvin E. Brodhead, Principal Assistant 
Engineer of the Easton and Amboy Railroad Company ; of George 
H. Daugherty, Architect of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and of 
John D. Trimmer, Freight Car Agent. The Western Union Tele- 
graph Company, Oliver A. Clewell, manager, established an office 
in these buildings in September of 1871. 

The Lehigh Valley Railroad, in its course along the river's banks 
at Bethlehem, traverses four of the old Moravian tracts, to wit : the 
Hartman tract, the Ostrom tract, the Simpson tract, and the Yssel- 
stein tract. Day after day, and night after night, the rolling of its 
trains of burden and palace-cars (upwards of seventy-five trains pass 
the site of the old Crown Inn, every twenty-four hours) — some laden 
with human freight, some with merchandise, — (some, too, for a time 
carried tea direct from the Celestial Empire, and in return the 
"great China mail" on its passage over the Atlantic to the Golden 
Gate, thence to be conveyed across the great Pacific Sea) — but most 
with anthracite ; — these, endless trains, drawn by giant ten-wheeled 
engines, — together with the calls of shrill or booming whistles, are 
re-echoed by the mountain over the little valley which their irresisti- 
ble influences have so wonderfully changed. 

The total amount of anthracite coal transported over the main line 
and branches of this road for the fiscal year ending 30th 'November, 
187 1, was 2,889,074 tons. During the same period, there 'were 
transported 867,721 passengers, equal to 13,412,064 carried one 
mile, and 1,573,746 tons of miscellaneous freight, equal to 53,165,973 
tons carried one mile. 

THE NORTH PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD. 

The company which constructed this important link in the great 
chain of Pennsylvania's railroads, by which, too, Bethlehem has been 
brought within two hours from Philadelphia, was incorporated by an 



Hie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 1^7 

Act of Legislature dated 8th April, 1852, under the name of The 
Philadelphia, Easton and Water-Gap Railroad Company. Ground 
was first broken on the Tunnel Section at Landis' Ridge on the i6th 
of June, 1853. On the 3d of October of that year, the corporate 
title of the company was changed into the one it bears at present. 
The first passenger train ran from Philadelphia to the Freemansburg 
station, on the Lehigh Valley Railroad (the then northern terminus 
of the road), on the ist of January, 1857. On the ist of July of the 
same year, the track was closed at Iron Hill (Irish's stone quarry), 
and a construction train was run through to the Bethlehem station. 
On the 8th of July the passenger trains were taken off the Freemans- 
burg branch, and began to run regularly over the main line to and 
from Bethlehem. This marked the opening of the road. The right 
of way over the old Moravian Farms and ground for the buildings 
requisite at its northern terminus, were purchased for the company 
by its commissioner, Rudolphus Kent — as has been stated elsewhere. 
The first station-house was held in common with the Lehigh Valley 
Railroad ; and stood in the intersection of the two roads, near the 
site of the old Ferry House. This was superseded by the Union 
Depot, which was erected at the joint expense of the two roads, and 
was occupied on the i8th November, 1867. Besides public rooms 
for the use of both roads, it contains the office of H. P. Hammann, 
the Company's General Agent at Bethlehem, and those of other 
officials under his supervision. 

* The first round-house of the North Pennsylvania Railroad a^ 
Bethlehem, was built in 1 85 7. This was superseded in 1 8 70 by a more 
capacious one with stalls for fifteen engines. It stands literally hchno 
where was the site of the "Crown Farm" orchard, it having been 
necessary to dig away the hill on which the ancient apple trees stood, 
to locate the building on a level with the bed of the railroad. The 
Freight Depot, a few rods east by south from the station on the 
Luckenbach Farm, was completed in 1870. It is built of brick, 
100 feet by 30 feet, roofed with slate, with a shed 70 feet by 25 feet, 
attached, — the entire building being surrounded by platforms. Its 
cost was $8,000. 

The track of the North Pennsylvania Railroad soon after cross- 
ing the "old King's Road, from the Bethlehem Mill to Irish's stone 
quarry," passes by or over Isaac Ysselstein's grave, opposite the 



l^S. The Crown Inn near Betlilehem. 



head of Ysselstein Island, — and on the west side of the run that 
flows under its bed, follows the old dividing line of the Luckenbach 
and Jacobi Farms, till within the Simpson Tract. In pursuing this 
course thence in a northwesterly direction, it passes over the very 
site of the old Crown Inn, and then near that of the Ferry House, 
beyond which it joins the Lehigh Valley Railroad. To be more 
precise. The first or lowest track of the North Pennsylvania Rail- 
road was located so as to cut the southwest corner of The Crown — 
and hence the site of the historic hostelry is almost entirely covered 
by a portion of the south platform of the Union Depot. 

Six passenger trains pass over the line of this road daily, Sundays 
excepted. They set out from the very spot on which Samuel Powell 
and his successors dispensed hospitality in the olden time. They 
land their human freight on the same spot ; and such has been the 
improvement in travel, since the days of John Koppel, and Klein's 
stage-wagon, that passenger-train No. 6 (commonly called the 
Buffalo express), which leaves the Bethlehem station at 8.40 p. M., 
makes the run of 54 miles to Philadelphia, in one hour and fifty 
minutes. 

For the fiscal year ending 31st October, 1871, there were trans- 
ported over this road 829,651 passengers, equal to 15,305,399 carried 
one mile, — 227,440 tons coal, 359,219 tons of miscellaneous freight, 
46,889 tons of pig iron, 333,345 bushels of lime, and 2,498,438 gal- 
lons of milk, — thus, far exceeding the capacity of Koppel's "slow 
and sure" freight line of the days of yore. Now the last-mentioned 
item of transportation suggested the poetical name of Galaxy or 
Milky Way, by which this road is also not unknown. 

THE FOUNDRY AND MACHINE SHOP, 

below the offices of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, on the site of the 
yard of the Luckenbach Farm, was established by Abbott and Cort- 
right in 1857. 

THE BETHLEHEM IRON COMPANY AND THEIR WORKS ON THE UPPER 
YSSELSTEIN TRACT. 

Early in the month of March, 1857, the senior partner of the firm 
of A. Wolle & Co., of Bethlehem, merchants, desirous of making 
an effort in a new direction for enlarging the business sphere of his 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 14^ 

native place, so highly favored by its situation in a region of country 
whose mineral wealth was beginning to be develeped, and by its 
position on the highways of travel, proposed to his partners the erec- 
tion of works for the production and manufacture of iron. The pro- 
I)osal meeting with their approbation, Mr. Wolle, before the expira- 
tion of four weeks, had procured a charter for the projected com- 
pany, styled in that instrument, which was dated 8th April, 1857, 
"The Saucona Iron Company." 

The summer and early autumn of the afore-mentioned year were 
spent in soliciting stock subscription, and in exploring the neigh- 
borhood for ore, in both of which preliminary steps, encouraging 
progress was being made, when the financial crisis which followed 
the suspension of The Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, par- 
alyzed the infant enterprise, and its further prosecution was indefi- 
nitely postponed. Up to this time it had been fostered mainly by the 
firm of A. Wolle & Co., Charles W. Ranch and Charles Brodhead, 
all of Bethlehem, and remained an unorganized body corporate. 

Two years of apparent inactivity followed this postponement. 
These, however, proved of incalculable benefit to the dormant enter- 
prise, as meanwhile numerous applications for the construction and 
management of the proposed works coming in from various quarters, 
an opportunity was afforded the company of satisfactorily canvassing 
the merits of the applicants. Charles B. Daniel, of Bethlehem, and 
Robert H. Sayre, of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, becoming associa- 
ted with the project, and the corporate title of the company having 
been changed at the suggestion of Charles Brodhead (he taking the 
ground that a Rolling Mill would furnish occupation for more labor 
than a blast furnace), by an act of Legislature, dated 31st March, 
1757, into that of "The Bethlehem Rolling Mills and Iron Com- 
pany;" — it was now vigorously prosecuted, and an important step 
towards its successful achievement was taken, by securing the ser- 
vices of John Fritz, of Johnstown, Cambria county, a master in his 
profession, to superintend the construction of the works, and then 
the production and manufacture of the metal. 

On the 14th of June, i860, the new company elected its first 
Board of Directors, and on the 7th of July ensuing, organized with 
the following officers, viz. : 

President. — Alfred Hunt, Philadelphia. 



150 TJie Ci'own Inn near Bethlehem. 



Directors. — Augustus Wolle, Bethlehem ; Asa Packer, Mauch 
Chunk ; John Taylor Johnston, of the New Jersey Central Railroad ; 
John Knecht, vShimersville ; Edward Roberts, Philadelphia ; Charles 
B. Daniel, Bethlehem ; Charles W. Ranch, Bethlehem. 

Secretary and Treasurer. — Charles B. Daniel. 

On the 1 6th day of July, ground was broken for a furnace (now 
called Furnace No. i), on a parcel of eleven acres of ground lying 
between the track of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the old Heller- 
town road ; said parcel having been purchased of Abbott, Cortright 
& Co., at ^300 per acre, — the company at the same time purchasing 
of A. Wolle & Co., six acres of land situate between the aforesaid 
road and the Lehigh river, at the rate of ^150 per acre. Work at 
this furnace was progressing slowly, when, in the spring of 1861, 
the country found itself on the eve of a civil war. A critical period 
in the history of the company now ensued. There followed six 
months of almost total inactivity, and but for the strenuous efforts of 
A. Wolle and Charles W. Ranch, in all probability the enterprise 
would have been entirely suspended for a time. 

By an act of Assembly dated ist May, 1861, the company's cor- 
porate title was changed into that of "The Bethlehem Iron Com- 
pany. ' ' 

Meanwhile work at the furnaces was progressing nominally only, 
until in the autumn of 1862, when it was resumed with vigor. The 
stack (115 feet boshes and d^ feet high) was completed by the 
close of the year, and on Sunday, 4th of January, 1863, Mr. Jede- 
diah Weiss, of Bethlehem, fired the blast, and next day Miss Kate 
Powell, of Philadelphia, put on the blast. The first iron made by 
the Bethlehem Iron Company (it was smelted from a mixture of 
brown hematite from the Saucon Valley, and magnetic oxide from 
Morris county, New Jersey) was drawn on the 6th of January, 1863. 
This furnance continued in blast for thirty-four weeks, and was then 
blown out for slight repairs. Having been put in blast a second 
time on the 24th of January, 1864, it continued in that condition 
for three hundred and sixty-three successive weeks, producing in 
that time 63,007 tons of pig metal, — a record which is perhaps 
without parallel in the annals of metallurgy. 

Meanwhile a rolling mill had been in course of construction since 
April of 1 861. The first iron for rolling was puddled 27th of July, 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 151 



1863, and the first rails were rolled 26th of September, 1S63. This 
mill contains 4 engines, 14 double puddling furnaces, 9 heating 
furnaces and 3 trains of rolls, viz., one 21-inch rail train, one 12-inch 
merchant train, and one 21-inch puddle train. The capacity of 
these works at present is from 20,000 to 22,000 tons of railroad iron. 
The first heavy contract for rails was one of 2,000 tons, made with 
the New Jersey Central Railroad, in 1864, said amount of rails being 
furnished at $62.50 per ton, one-half, however, being delivered 
when the market ruled from $100 to $125 per ton. 

Furnace No. 2 (15 feet boshes, 45 feet high), was commenced to 
be constructed in May of 1864. First blast fired 27th of March, 
1867. Blast put on 2Sth of March, 1867. First iron drawn 30th 
of March, 1867. 

In September of 1868 the Bethlehem Iron Company succeeded 
in merging into its own, the interests of the Northampton Iron 
Company, an adjacent enterprise, whose works were then in course 
of construction. Thereby the former strengthened its own position, 
besides acquiring upwards of 80 acres of valuable real estate, con- 
tiguous to its works, and also leases of iron beds at different points, 
held by the latter. 

Furnace No. 3 (14 feet boshes, 50 feet high), until the time of 
the merger, called "The Northampton Furnace," was put in blast 
in December of 1868. First iron drawn i8th December, 1868. 

The combined capacity of these three furnaces is about 30,000 
tons of pig metal per annum, most of which is manufactured in the 
company's rolling mill. 

At a meeting of the stockholders, held 28th of July, 1868, it was 
resolved to approve of the late suggestion of the Board of Directors 
to engage in the manufacture of steel rails, and that "the Superin- 
tendent take measures to construct works suitable for the manufac- 
ture of such rails without delay." Action on this resolution was at 
once taken, and, in September following, the construction of the 
Cyclopean mills, now erecting on what is known as the Andrews lot, 
was commenced. A machine shop (dimensions 234 feet by 64 feet), 
built in 1865, and furnished with the most approved appliances, and 
a foundry (dimensions 107 feet by 64 feet), built in 1868, enable 
the company to build or make the engines, pumps, rolls and what- 
ever else is requisite for the complete equipment of the new mills. 



15B The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

and also to keep their extensive works in repair with their own 
manufactures. 

Rolling mill No. 2, of the Bethlehem Iron Company, built in the 
shape of a Greek cross, has an extreme length of 931 feet, and covers 
an area of 164,391 square feet, /. e., upwards of 4.6 acres of ground. 
This colossal structure is covered with a slate roof (the slate is from 
the Chapman quarry), resting upon grooved arches of cast iron, 
without supporters, presenting in the interior an elegance of design 
and construction, which, perhaps, is the iirst point to strike the 
beholder's eye, as he enters its spacious aisles. 

The great train for rolling steel-rails will consist of one 24, and 
one 26-inch roll, with a condensing-engine at each end (one, with 
48-inch diameter cylinder and 46 inch stroke, the other with 56-inch 
diameter cylinder and 48 inch stroke) — measuring 124 feet 9 inches 
from center to center of the engines — making, it is thought, the 
largest continuous train in the world. The blooming-train of 31 
inches, is run by an engine of its own. The probabilities are, that 
additional trains of rolls, to wit: one 9 inch, one 14 inch, and one 
18 inch, will be added. The mill will also contain four sets of saws 
with double engine for each set, a double blowing engine for the 
Bessemer works, two 5 -ton Bessemer converters, with a capacity of 
100 tons of steel per day — a cupola engine, and a number of Sieman's 
Regenerative Gas Furnaces for heating purposes. 

The Bethlehem Iron Company's works, at the present time con- 
sume annually 70,000 tons of Pennsylvania hematite and New Jersey 
magnetic oxide, and from 70,000 to 75,000 tons of coal. Upwards 
of 800 men are employed in its magnificent enterprise. 



ST. PETER'S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, 

on Vine street, between Fifth street and Packer avenue. Erected in 
1863. Opened for Divine Worship 26th June, 1864. 

First Pastor. — Rev. A. T. Geissenhainer. 

Present Pttstor. — Rev. Charles J. Cooper. 

There are 175 communicant members belonging to this, church. 
Total membership 300. 



TJic Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 153 



CHURCH OF THE HOLY LXFAKCV (Cfi/toiic) 

(Diocese of Philadelphia, Rt. Rev. James F. Wood, D. D., Bishop 
of Pennsylvania), on the corner of Fourth and Locust streets. 
Erected in 1863 and 1864. Opened for Divine Worship 24th 
October, 1864. 

Fas for.— Rev. M. C. AIcEnroc. 

Total membership 2,650. 

A plot of two and a half acres, lying on the mountain side in the 
extreme soutlieast corner of his tract, was donated by Asa Packer to 
the Church of the Holy Infancy for a Cemetery. The first inter- 
ment within its borders, was that of James Griffin, 2 2d October, 
1867. 

CHURCH OF THE NA TIVITY {EfiscopaPi, 

on the south-east corner of Third street and Wyandotte street 
(the old Philadelphia Roadj. Erected in 1S64 and 1865. Opened 
for Divine Worship 19th April, 1865. 

First Fastor.—RGY. Eliphalet Nott Potter. 

First Vestry. — Tinsley Jeter, South Bethlehem ; William H. Sayre, 
South Bethlehem; Robert H. Sayre, South Bethlehem; William H. 
Sayre, Jr., South Bethlehem; John Smylie, Jr., South Bethlehem; 
Ira Cortright, Bethlehem; Asa Packer, Mauch Chunk; Solomon W. 
Roberts, Philadelphia. 

Present Rector. — Rev. Cortlandt Whitehead. 

There are 127 communicant members belonging to this church, 
and 75 families connected with the Parish. 



THE FIRST SABBA TH SCHOOL. 

upon the old Moravian Tract opposite the Borough of Bethlehem, 
was commenced by Miss Amanda Jones of that place, on the ist of 
May, 1859. Eleven children constituted the class she gathered on 
that day in the ''District School House" of Bethlehem South. In 
November of 1863, this school numbered 280, and subsequently 
upwards of 500 children in attendance. It is still under the care of 
its founder and first Superintendent. 



154 ^^^^ Ci'owii Inn near Bethlehem. 



a/RISTMAS HALL, 

erected in 1863 by the Moravians for a Mission Church in Bethle- 
hem South. Opened for Divine Worship 20th November, 1864. 

First Pastor. — Rev. F. F. Hagen. 

This building was conveyed to the Lehigh University in 1865, 
and thereupon received its present name. 

THE BETHLEHEM SOUTH GAS AND WATER COMPANY, 
INCORPORATED APRH, 1864, 

holds the Gas Works, in the borough of South Bethlehem (on 
Spruce street near Third street), — constructed by B. E. Lehman in 
1867, at a cost of $32,000, including the works and the distributing 
mains. Gas was consumed for the first time, 25th December, 1867. 
Board of Directors. — President, E. P. Wilbur; Secretary and 
Treasurer, H. Stanley Goodwin; Superintendent, B. E. Lehman. 

THE BOROUGH OF SOUTH BETHLEHE.M 

was incorporated under the General Borough Law at the August 
term, 1865, of the Court of Northampton County. The Council 
met for the first time 19th September, of that year. 

First Burgess. — James McMahon. 

Aleinbers of First Council. — Louis F. Beckel, E. P. Wilbur, James 
McCoy, James Purcell, David I. Yerkes. 

Borough Treasurer. — Theophilus Horlacher. 

Town C7^/-Z'.— William H. Bush. 

High Constable. — John Kilkelly. 

The limits of the borough of South Bethlehem are thus defined 
in the act of incorporation : 

"Beginning at a point on the bank of the river Lehigh, opposite 
a small island " (vulgarly called Goose island) " in the line of North- 
ampton and Lehigh Counties ; thence following down the several 
courses of the said river, 427.45 perches to an oak opposite the 
head of Ysselstein's island ; thence southeasterly, 30 perches to a 
stone in the Hellertown road ; thence along the lands of Asa Packer, 
westerly and southwesterly, -i^n perches to the northwest corner of 



The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 155 



said Asa Packer's land ; thence westerly, 127.4 perches to the line 
of Lehigh County; and thence northeasterly, 130 perches along 
said line to the place of beginning." 

From Messrs. Aschbach's and Hamnan's authorized survey and 
map of the borough we learn that the following are the streets within 
its limits, lying east of the old Philadelphia road, to wit : Front, 
Second, Third, Mechanic, Fourth, Fifth, and Packer Avenue, — all 
running east and west ; and Walnut, Chestnut (proposed), Brodhead 
Avenue, Vine, New, Birch, Elm, Locust, Pine, Spruce, Linden, 
Poplar, Oak, and Cherry, — all running north and south. 

The "Zinc Mine road," deflecting from the old Philadelphia 
road in a northeasterly direction (now Carpenter street), crosses the 
western portion of the above defined plot obliquely. In March of 
1869 the borough of South Bethlehem was divided into three wards, 
by virtue of a special act of Legislature. Its population, according 
to the census of 1870, was 3,550. How the people of this ambitious 
little town (it is a highly composite people, — a mixed population of 
Americans, Irish, Germans, Belgians, Welsh, English, French, 
Swedes, Italians, Poles and Hollanders) live, — how they buy and 
sell, what they eat and drink, and how they maintain the various 
relations incident upon their coalescence into a commonwealth, and 
yet preserve, each element its distinctive characteristics, may in part 
be inferred from an enumeration of the churches, schools, public 
houses, places of business and associations which they support. Of 
churches there are 6 ; of schools there are 8, including the Sabbath 
schools; of Societies there are 4, to wit, Knights of Pythias, number- 
ing 200 members ; the Catholic Temperance Society, numbering 
230 members; the Catholic Beneficial Society, numbering 180 
members; and the Sodality of the Holy Virgin, numbering 210 
members. There is furthermore a cornet band and a military 
organization, known as "The Wilbur Guards." Of hotels there 
are 12, to wit, the Exchange, the Pacific, the Lehigh Valley, the 
Continental, the Zinc Works Hotel, the Le Pierre, the Johnstown 
House, the Rolling Mill House, the Sherman House, the Marechal 
House, the Fountain Valley House, and the Merchants' Hotel. 
There are 18 licensed restaurants and saloons, 4 wholesale liquor 
stores, 3 justices of the peace, 6 physicans, i dentist, 3 bakers and 
confectioners, 2 jewellers, 3 blacksmiths, 6 milliners, 8 shoemakers, 



156 Tlic Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 



2 undertakers, i carpet weaver, i leather dresser, 12 dry goods and 
variety stores, 2 drug stores, 3 printing offices, 2 meat markets, 3 
cigar stores, i hardware store, i furniture store, 5 clothing stores, i 
shovel factory, i slate yard, 2 coal and lumber yards, i foundry and 
machine shop, and i planing mill and sash factory. Its furnaces, 
mills, foundries and workshops, for the production and manufacture 
of iron, zinc and brass, furnish employment to almost one-half of 
this busy people, the prosperity and rapid growth of whose town 
illustrate what wonders can be effected by the harmonious co-opera- 
tion of capital and labor. 



THE NEIV STREET BRIDGE COMPANY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Incorporated by an act of Assembly, 3d May, 1864. Commis- 
sioners, Aaron W. Radley, John T. Levers, Richard W. Leibert, 
and Herman A. Doster. This company's bridge over the Lehigh 
river, which connects the east end of the Simpson tract with the 
borough of Bethlehem, Avas built in 1866 and 1867, at a cost of 
^60,000, and was opened for travel 2d of September, 1867. The 
structure rests upon eight piers, is thirty-six feet above low water 
mark, spans the track of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, 
the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company's canal, the Manokasy 
creek, a neck of land called the Sand island, the Lehigh, and the 
track of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The length of the floor of 
this bridge is 1046 feet by actual measurement. 

First Board of Directors. — President, Charles N. Beckel ; Robert 
H. Sayre, Elisha P. Wilbur, John J. Levers, Herman A. Doster, 
Robert A. Abbott, 

Secretary ajid Treasurer. — Herman A. Doster. 

Original shares were issued and sold at $50. 



WATER WORKS. 

In 1 866 Tinsley Jeter built a small reservoir near Bishopthrope 
School, and laid pipes thence, through several streets, as far as the 
Union Depot, thus supplying Fountain Hill with mountain spring 
water. 



The Crown Inn near JSetJileJiein. J 67 



THE SOUTH BETHLEHEM POST OFFICE 

was established in June of 1866, 
First Postmaster. — John Seem. 

THE LEHIGH UNIVERSITY, 

founded by the Hon. Asa Packer, Mauch Chunk, in 1865. Erected 
between 1866 and 1869, in the southeast corner of the Simpson 
Tract. 

In 1865 the Hon. Asa Packer, of Mauch Chunck, announced to 
the Rt, Rev. William Bacon Stevens, the Bishop of Pennsylvania, 
his intention to appropriate $500,000 and an eligible site and 
grounds at South Bethlehem for an educational institution, in which 
he designed that opportunities should be afforded to young men of 
acquiring, besides a liberal education, a knowledge of those branches 
of science which bear directly upon the industrial pursuits concerned 
in developing the natural resources of the country — in schools of 
Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, of Chemistry, 
Architecture and Construction. This institution Mr. Packer pro- 
posed to name The Lehigh University. 

Ground was broken for the main building — called Packer Hall — 
on ist of July, 1866, and the exercises of the University were form- 
ally opened in Christmas Hall on the ist of September following, in 
the presence of the Trustees and Faculty of the institution, the stu- 
dents of the first class and invited guests. Packer Hall, built in the 
architectural style of the Renaissance (Edward Tuckerman Potter, 
Architect, James Jenkins, Superintendent of Construction), of Pots- 
dam sandstone, quarried on Ostrom's Ridge, was so far completed 
as to be occupied on the 4th of March, 1869. 

The corps of officers of this noble Institution was constituted as 
follows, at the time of its opening : 

Founder of the Lehigh University. — The Hon. Asa Packer, of 
Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania. 

Board of Trustees.— The Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens, D. D., 
LL. D., Bishop of Pennsylvania, President of the Board; the Hon. 
Asa Packer, Mauch Chunk; the Hon. J. W. Maynard, Easton; 
Robert H. Sayre, Esq., South Bethlehem ; William H. Sayre, Jr., Esq., 
Bethlehem ; Robert A. Packer, Esq. , Mauch Chunk ; G. B. Linder- 



158 The Ci'oivn Inn near Bethlehem. 

man, M. D., Mauch Chunk ; John Fritz, Esq., Bethlehem ; Harry 
E. Packer, Esq., Mauch Chunk ; Joseph Harrison, Jr., Esq., 
Philadelphia. 

Secretary. — Robert A. Packer. 

Treasurer of the Fund. — Elisha P. Wilbur, Esq., South Bethle- 
hem. 

FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

President. — Henry Coppee, LL. D., Professor of History and 
English Literature. 

Professors.— Kev. Eliphalet Nott Potter, M. A., Professor of 
Moral and Mental Philosophy and of Christian Evidence ; Charles 
Mayer Wetherill, Ph. D., M. D., Professor of Chemistry (died at 
his residence at the University, 5th March, 187 1); Edwin Wright 
Morgan, LL. D., Professor of Mathematics and Mechanics (died 
at his residence in Bethlehem, i6th April, 1869) ; Alfred Marshall 
Mayer, Ph. D., Professor of Physics and Astronomy; William 
Theodore Roepper, Esq., Professor of Mineralogy and Geology 
and Curator of the Museum. 

Instructors. — George Thomas Graham, A. B., Instructor in Latin, 
Greek and Mathematics; M. Henri Albert Rinck, Instructor in 
French and German ; Stephen Paschall Sharpless, S. B., Instructor 
and Assistant in Chemistry. 

Janitor. — Mr. Nathan Crowell Tooker. 

First Class of Students (entered ist September, 1866). — Lehman 
Preston Ashmead, Philadelphia ; Edward C. Boutelle, Bethlehem ; 
Richard Brodhead, South Bethlehem; William R. Butler, Mauch 
Chunk ; George L. Cummins, Louisville, Ky. ; Milton Dimmick, 
Mauch Chunk ; J. F. Reynolds Evans, Fort Wayne, Ind. ; George 
A. Jenkins, South Bethlehem ; Henry C. Jenkins, South Bethlehem; 
William H. Jenkins, Wyoming; William J. Kerr, Jr., New York 
City ; A. Nelson Lewis, Havre de Grace, Md. ; Peter D. Ludwig, 
Tamaqua ; Charles McKee, Allentown ; Harry E. Packer, Mauch 
Chunk; William L. Paine, Wilkesbarre; Joseph M. Piollett, To- 
wanda ; Harry R. Price, Minersville ; Henry B. Reed, Philadel- 
phia; William D. Ronaldson, Philadelphia; James K. vShoemaker, 
Mauch Chunk ; John M. Thorne, Palmyra, N. Y. ; Robert P. 
Weston, Slatington ; Charles Wetherill, Phoenixville ; Russel B. 
Yates, Waverly, N. Y. 



The Crown Inn near Betlilehem. 159 



The first ''University Day" was celebrated on the 25th of June, 
1867. On the 3d of July, 1871, the Lehigh University was formally 
placed under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and 
tuition in all the branches of instruction, was, at the wish of the 
founder, declared to be free. 



THE MORAF/AJV CHURCH IN SOUTH BETHLEHEM, 

on Elm street, near Packer Avenue, erected in 1S67, opened for 
Divine service 9th of March, 1868. 

Pastor. — Rev. Henry J. Van Vleck. 

Communicant members, 135 ; total membership, 235. 



BISHOPTHROPE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. 

on the west line of the Simpson Tract, established in 1868, under 
the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church, The School was 
opened 5th of September of the aforementioned year. 

First President. — Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens, D. D,, 
LL. D., Bishop of Pennsylvania. 

First Board of Trustees. — Rev. Eliphalet Nott Potter, Rector of 
the Church of the Nativity ; Tinsley Jeter, Robert H. Sayre, 
William H. Sayre, Jr., James Jenkins, H. Stanley Goodwin, 
Dr. Henry Coppee. 

First Principal. — Miss Edith L. Chase. 

Present Principal. — Miss F. I. "Walsh. 



THE RAILROAD BRIDGE OF THE LEHIGH AND SUSQUEHANNA RAILROAD 

was built by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, in 1867. 
Its length is 438 feet by actual measurement. In the spring of 1868 
the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad connected with the North 
Pennsylvania Railroad by this bridge for general business. 



THE LEHIGH VALLEY BRASS WORKS. 

on Front street, below the offices of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, 
established in 1863. B. E. Lehman, proprietor. 



160 TJie Ci'oivn Inn near Bethlehem. 



THE PENROSE SCHOOL. 

on Vine street, above Fourth, erected in 1S67, opened 17th of 
October, 1867. 

THE MELROSE SCHOOL. 

on Poplar street, above Fourth, erected in 1870, opened nth of 
October, 1870. 

Both are graded public schools, under the control of the School 
Directors of the District and under the supervision of the Super- 
intendent of the Common Schools of Northampton County. 

The attendance for the school year, ending ist June, 1872, was — 
boys 374, girls 341. The average attendance was — boys 282, girls 
231. There are 3 male and 3 female teachers employed in Penrose, 
and 3 male and 4 female teachers in Melrose. The School Board, 
at this writing, is constituted as follows : 

Fresideiit. — H. Stanley Goodwin. 

Secretary.— O. R. Wilt. 

Treasurer. — James Purcell. 

Directors. — H. K. Shaner, Wm. S. Sieger, Wm. H. Rudolph, 
Charles Quinn, Hugh O'Neil, Henry McCool and Patrick Downey. 

THE NORTHAMPTON CONSERVATIVE. 

Milton F. Cushing, proprietor and publisher, was the first Aveekly 
newspaper published in the borough of South Bethlehem. The first 
number was issued 30th of September 1868. 

THE MORNING PROGRESS. 

O. B. Sigley & Co., proprietors and publishers, was the first daily 
published in the borough of South Bethlehem. The first number 
Avas issued 3d of April, 187 1. 

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF SOUTH BETHLEHEM, 

on the corner of Fourth and Vine streets, erected in 1870 and 1871. 
The lecture room was opened for Divine worship 9th of April, 1871. 
First Pastor.— Kqw. J. Albert Rondthaler. 



The Crown Inn near Betlilehem. IGl 

First Session. — Rev. J. Albert Rondthalcr, W. Calvin Ferriday, 
W. A. McCormick, 

Present Pastor. — Rev. J. Thompson Osier. 

The congregation numbers 60 souls ; the membership numbers 30. 

THE FIRST REFORMED CHURCH OF SOUTH BETHLEHEM. 

on Fourth street, between New and Vine, erected in 1870 and 1871, 
opened for Divine worship 2 2d of October, 1871. 

Pastor. — Rev. N. Z. Snyder. 

Number of communicants 125 ; total membership 226. 

THE ANTHRACITE BUILDING. 

on Lehigh street, near the old Philadelphia road, erected in 187 1, 
contains the offices of the banking house of E. P. Wilbur & Co., 
established in October of 1870 ; the coal offices of Linderman, 
Skeer & Co., the Franklin Coal Company, and Cleaver & Brod- 
head ; and the offices of "The Morning Progress;" "The Times" 
Job Print, D. J. Godshalk & Co. ; and the Central Express. 

THE SOUTH BETHLEHEM READING ROOM AND LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 

in Hartman's Hall, on Fourth street, near New, established in 
January of 1872. The reading room was formally opened 3d of 
June, 1872. 

President. — Wm. Palfrey. 

Viee-President.—Q. F. Hittell, M. D. 

Secretary. — A. L. Cope. 

Corresponding Secretary. — Monroe Van Billiard. 

Executive Committee. — George Ziegenfuss, Esq., James McMahon, 
M. Van Billiard. 

THE COLD STRING WATER COMPANY, 

incorporated 8th of April, 1872, by the Court of Lehigh County. 

"The object of this corporation is to supply Fountain Hill, Dela- 
ware avenue and their vicinity with water for culinary, houscliold 
and other useful and ornamental purposes." 



3, 



162 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 

Preside nf. — Abraham Yost . 
Secretary and Treasurer. — John L. Cooper. 

Directors. — G. B. Linderman, G. H. Daugherty, H. Stanley 
Goodwin. 

THE FOUNTAIN HILL CEMETERY COMPANY. 

incorporated loth of April, 1872, by the Court of Lehigh County, 
recently located a cemetery for the joint use of the churches of 
South Bethlehem and its vicinity, on a plot of 6 acres of ground 
(it was known in mediaeval times as "Das Buchtveizenfcld,'^ i. e., 
The Buckwheat Field), occupying the extreme western limit of the 
old Hoffert Farm. 

The officers of this association are — ■ 

President. — George Ziegenfuss. 

Vice-President. — H. K. Shaner. 

Secretary. — O. K. Wilt. Twelve Directors complete the com- 
pany's Executive Board. 

The first interment within the borders of this cemetery was that 
of Henry, an infant son of Jacob and Rebecca Bingel, 28th of 
August, 1872. 




